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Aviation History
1964
1964 - 0258.PDF
SUPPLEMENT TO FLIGHT International JANUARY 1964 Air-Cushion Vehicles DESIGN • COMPONENTS • APPLICATIONS POETRY WRITTEN BY ANON in this issue 2 International News 5 Military Applications of Hovercraft 8 At Earls Court 9 Let's Not Miss the (Hover) Bus 11 An ACV Racer 12a Bell Hydroskimmer 13 Letters and Industry Editor-in-Chief Maurice A. Smith DFC Editor H. F. King MBE Technical Editor W. T. Gunstoo Managing Director H. N. Priaulx MBE VOLUME 4 NUMBER 19 Iliffe Transport Publications Ltd Dorset House, Stamford Street, London SE1 Telephone: Waterloo 3333 (Telex 25137) Telegrams: Flightpres London Telex Annual subscriptions Home tgj. Oversea! 18*. Canada and USA 13 Branch Offices 8-ln Corporation Street, Coventry telephone: Coventry 25210 King Edward House, New Street, Birmingham 2 Telephone: Midland 7191 260 Deansgate, Manchester 3 Telephr ne: Blackfriars 4412 or Deansgate 3595 62 Buchanan Street. Glasgow Cl "eleohone: Central 1265/6 11 MarsU Street, Bristol 1 Telephone: Bristol 21491/2 New York, N.Y. Jnomas Skinner & Company (Publishers) Ltd ill Broadway 6 Telephone: Digby 9-1197 ©liiffe Transport Publications Ltd 1964. •^mission to reproduce illustrations and •etterpress can be granted only under written •peetnent. Brief extracts or comments may be "oat with due acknowledgement. A FEW LINES OF DOGGEREL, RECEIVED anonymously at these offices and printed on page 4, remind us that the potential of air-cushion vehicles is by no means universally acknow- ledged. But the postmark—Earls Court—and the date, which coin- cided with the Boat Show, suggest that the faceless, nameless author may have been some ancient shell- back, prejudiced by the wooden walls of old England against the glass-fibre sidewalls of today. For in this same issue we report the sale at the Boat Show of two Union Dyna- mics UD2 air-cushion vehicles. True, this type of craft is small, simple and cheap; but these very characteristics may spell success. In the big league, represented by Westland's Saunders-Roe Division, quiet optimism persists. The com- pany philosophizes in its annual report: "Demonstration* and the intensive sales effort have resulted in many enquiries. We are working hard to convert some of these into orders, but this is a pioneer field in which patience as well as endeavour is necessary." Hopes for the future are propounded in another paragraph which reads: "An ad- vanced project study of a cross- channel hovercraft ferry has been completed, a 150-ton craft—known as the SR.N4—to carry 600 passen- gers, or 35 cars/300 passengers or 70 tons of freight at cruising speeds of 70 knots: this equals the carrying capacity of a 4,000-ton ship ferry. It is appreciated that the introduc- tion of such craft into service may take some years, but we are optimis- tic of their future." The operative word is optimistic, and not only in respect of British- built craft but their foreign licensees also. Another annual report—that of the National Research Develop- ment Corporation—sets the tone thus: "During the year negotiations have been carried out for licensing Hovercraft to the United States and Japanese manufacturers, by agree- ments made between (i) Westlands, Hovercraft Development and Bell Aerospace Corporation; (ii) Vickers, Hovercraft Development and Re- public Aviation Corporation; (iii) Westlands, Hovercraft Development and Mitsubishi; and (iv) Vickers, Hovercraft Development and Mitsui." Not bad going for a project des- cribed by our doggerel-monger as a daft creature which builds its nest in the taxpayer's hair. We ourselves take courage from recent assurances by two British ACV designers. "You'll see," was their comment, "your ACV supplement will one day be as big as Flight International." Whether their opinions prove right or wrong, they were at least expressed in person and not anonymously. Like any other journal, we are never warmly disposed towards nameless correspondents, however staunch they may be to their cause. Especially ones who write in dog- gerel. And very bad doggerel at that. ACV—1
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