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Aviation History
1963
1963 - 1116.PDF
FLIGHT International supplement, 28 March 1963 Air-Cushion Vehicles LETTERS TO THE EDITOR The Editor of "Air-Cushion Vehicles" is not necessarily in agreement with the views express ed by correspondents in these columns. Names and addresses of writers, not for publication in detail, must in all cases accom pany letters. A Club for Amateurs SIR,—Tt was quite by accident that I ran across the December 20, 1962, issue of Flight International while rummaging through books and maga zines at a used-book stand. I was looking for a certain magazine that advertised aircraft parts which I was seeking to use in the ground-effect machine which I am building. Your new journal Air - Cushion Vehicles will be welcome here in the States since there are hundreds of lay men experimenting with projects of their own design. Getting information on such a subject here is like trying to sell ice-boxes at the North Pole. The main problem which we seem to have is locating parts and material for our projects, and here I hope that your magazine will be able to enlighten and assist us. I have been considering placing ads in the various popular- science magazines, in the hope of form ing a GEM club, to which the layman can turn to find the materials and infor mation that he seeks. In building my machine I have found that it is well- nigh impossible for the average person to build such a project on his own unless he has a ready source of finance and means to build his project without the drawbacks that confront the layman. I have finally adopted a McCulloch 72 h.p. two-cycle engine, with an r.p.m. of about 4,100, and its weight is ex actly 781b, less the starter and alter nator that 1 have had to have machined and fitted to the engine (the cost of which is nearly equal to what the engine originally cost me). The engine and its tractor propeller are mounted back-to-front, so that the prop induces air at the open rear end of the craft and discharges it down to the chamber and out the bottom, through the lift jets. The engine exhausts are taken out sideways through a pair of Midas glass-packed mufflers in the jet like nacelles at the sides. I am planning on using a glass-fibre body. As the sketch shows, my pro ject has a delta configuration, because the parts and material I have had to use will work better with this layout. There will be three wheels, and control will be accomplished by venting the main chamber through discharge vents on each side in the exhaust nacelles. Overall length will be about 11ft, and the two exhausts are about 8ft apart. I take a particular interest in explor ing the mountains and desert areas in search of good photographic scenery— —Indian ruins and especially caves, since at heart I am a spelunker (cave explorer). The reason I am building my machine is to get me to these im possible places with enough equipment to camp wherever I feel. That is why the machine must be compact and small, to get into tight places. I would appreciate your printing this letter in the hope that some of your readers may wish to form a GEM club. If sufficient response is received I will send out a newsletter in which interested parties could swap ideas, information and offers to buy and sell equipment. I know of at least 30 per sons in Phoenix who have been tinker ing around air-cushion vehicles, all too many of which have been toys. Some, however, like myself, have sunk a lot of time, effort and money into their projects and, also like myself, have had many headaches because of lack of materials or lack of sources of materials. CHARLES A. MARCOUX 365.1 W. Pahnaire Dr. Phoenix, Arizona Monorail Group SIR,—Without doubt the present road- rail crisis has sharpened technical inter est in air-cushion vehicles, because the need for fast reliable transport is obvi ously urgent. Two months of ice and snow has given added point to this need. By the same token transportation engineers are also engaged on research into the linear induction motor, air-jet propulsion and monorail, and gradually some sort of connection or combination of these developments is increasingly indicated. The early pioneers of railways (Stephenson, Trevithick, Newcomcn and others) were hampered by lack of com munications and worked in individual isolation, often making the same false starts and suffering the same disappoint ments. Unfortunately they had no alternative choice. Today, however, isolated effort is no longer necessary or wise. Most experts subscribe to one or more of the learned Institutions and form groups to discuss modern tech niques, thus saving much time, effort and expense in research. The monorail is a typical example of this tendency. At the regular monthly discussions of the Institute of Patentees and Inventors, the monorail was so frequently men tioned that the Institute has sponsored a Monorail Group consisting of a few experts eager to study this art with a scientific engineering approach. At their first meeting in February, the Group resolved on the following activi ties: (1) To perpetuate the memory of monorail pioneers and collect historical data about early systems. (2) To pro mote recognition of monorail standards in the form of a philosophy of the art. (3) To collect, analyse, correlate and publish information about the mono rail. (4) The term "philosophy" is per haps the most concise way of describing their application of pure thought to every aspect of monorail theory, de velopment, construction and operation. Being uninhibited by financial interest, the Group can assess the merits and faults of all systems quite objectively, codifying the problems which still exist and appraising suggested solutions. The rich variety of monorails in itself is an embarrassment to investors and inven- An impression of Mr C. A. Marcoux's craft, referred to in the ad jacent letter 49
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