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Aviation History
1963
1963 - 2291.PDF
Air-Cushion Vehicles FLIGHT International supplement, 26 September 19t -:'-:--.•• . •• ;.:•:••;•: • .- •g mm m^ •: • -<.-"": | ^h^^^l*«<rL Ji ' m gt,il ^^^fc* ^^ • "^^ nn. mm** Pi 9Pi s-j,, wL^J^^IkL. """"•I'-^iiV These three overwater passenger-carrying vehicles all have similar work-capacities and similar first costs: Westland SR.N4 air-cushion vehk (about 4,820 ton-kt, about £1,500,000); "Koningin Fabiola" Belgian Marine car ferry (5,050 ton-kt, £1,320,000); and General Dynamics/ Come 880M jetliner (4,990 ton-kt, £1,536,000) What Price Hovercraft?... tions. For the specific first cost of the projected SR.N4 to be already of the order of that of ferry boats and aircraft is some achievement when it is con sidered that only some six years develop ment will lie behind such a craft, compared with 50 years or more for the boats and aircraft. Many highly devel oped components as well as advanced materials and manufacturing techniques, are, of course, already available for any new vehicle such as a Hovercraft; and these factors certainly contribute to wards the ability to produce an efficient and low-cost craft in a relatively short time. When plotted on a logarithmic grid, the ACV prices of Fig 11 show a trend which would predict a continu decrease in first cost per ton-knot wi increasing size (Fig 12). This tret combined with further ACV develc ment, indicates that we may expect see Hovercraft first costs per ton-kr to fall as low as those of other forms comparable overwater transport, a eventually to drop to a new low lev Fig 12: A plot on logarithmic axes of the same parameters as those of Fig 11. This presentation brings out the trend of costs resulting from the fundamental "size" effect: cushion powerjperimeter divided by cushion lift/area TON-KNOT 1,000 -f 200 100 J SPEEDS QUOTED ARE MAX CRUISING SPEEDS WEIGHTS QUOTED ARE GROSS WEIGHTS 30 40 50 60 60 100 200 300 POTENTIAL WORK CAPACITY 400 500 600 800 1,000 PAY LOAD x CRUISINC 2,000 SPEED 3,000 4,000 5jP<» W TON - KNOTS 42
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