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Aviation History
1967
1967 - 1419.PDF
FLIGHT International supplement, 20 July 1967 Air-Cushion Vehicle* prototype 40-ton BHC BH-7, to be equipped as a coastal patrol craft, before committing itself further to ACVs. This will not be delivered before the beginning of 1970. The Government orders for the first two prototypes (the first to be an Army logistics craft) were expected to be placed within the next few weeks, the MoD said last month. The two officers posted to the first RN hovercraft unit are Lt Vernon Phillips, an air engineering officer, who will command, and Lt Christopher Stafford, who will be senior driver. Lt Stafford was one of the four drivers of the former Hovercraft Unit (Far East), which evaluated two N5s in Malaysia in 1965. Hovercraft Director Appointed The long-awaited announcement of who was to become the Ministry of Technology's overlord of ACVs was made in answer to a Parliamentary question on June 27. The first Direc- tor of Hovercraft is Mr Frederick G. R. Cook, whose appointment became effective on that date. Mr Cook, who is 53, has been Head of the Secretariat of the Com- monwealth Defence Organisation in the MoD since 1964. A BSc(Eng), he entered the Scientific Civil Service in 1936 and during the war served at Farnborough and Boscombe Down. He attended the Imperial Defence College in 1953, was attached to the British Joint Services Staff in Wash- ington and subsequently became Director, RAF Fighters, within the MoA. As Mintech's Director of Hovercraft he heads a division which combines the Ministry's responsibilities for civil and military ACV affairs. There is widespread surprise and disappointment that Mr R. A. Shaw, who has headed the Minteoh ACV team since that Ministry absorbed the relevant parts of the MoA, was not appointed Director. He has served for some time with the title Assistant Director without having a chief. Mr Shaw, who continues with the Mintech hovercraft team, has the longest and closest association with ACVs of any civil servant, being primarily responsible for arousing the NRDC's interest in Mr Cockerell's ideas during the late '50s. Since that time, in the MoA and Mintech, he has headed the Government's full- time hovercraft workers. Seaspeed Goes for Sidewalls Seaspeed—British Rail Hovercraft— signed a contract on July 7 for the first Hovermarine HM.2 60-65 passenger sidewall hovercraft, for delivery in November (see page 8). At the same time an option was taken on a second craft for delivery next spring. The first craft will be operational on Seaspeed's services before the end of the year. In this way Seaspeed will meet the challenge presented last month by Hovertravel, which announced that next year it, too, would operate between Southampton and Cowes (Seaspeed's first route) with an HM.2, in conjunction with the present conventional ferry incum- bent, Red Funnel Steamers. Seaspeed may, in fact, return the challenge by putting the HM.2 into service between Portsmouth and Ryde (Hovertravel's prime route) though Portsmouth - Cowes, Southampton - Cowes and Southampton - Ryde are also being considered. There is little doubt that both Solent operators, in opting for sidewall craft (the HM.2 is capable of about 35kt), will set the pattern for short high- frequency ferries where water depth remains adequate. HovertraveFs chair- man, Mr Don Robertson, in particular, has been critical of the high costs and poor economics of present-day amphibians with which the Solent services were begun. With nearly twice the capacity of the SR.N6 and appreciably lower in first cost as well as maintenance, the diesel-powered HM.2 should make possible fare reductions while imposing a penalty of only a few minutes on service times. Announcing the HM.2 order Dr Sydney Jones, Seaspeed chairman, said that the company had carried well over 100,000 passengers and logged over 4,000hr in just under a year with its two N6s, and had carried over 5,000 freight consign- ments. With the two craft on service, and therefore no stand-by, a mechani- cal reliability of 96.5 per cent had been achieved, and only 2 per cent of the scheduled 8,384 journeys had been cancelled because of adverse weather. A feature on Hovermarine Ltd. starts on page 8. Riviera Operations Planned French ACVs will make their com- mercial d£but in the summer next year, on the route Nice-Monte Carlo- Cannes-Saint Tropez. Two 90- passenger SEDAM N.300 craft will be used, with a third joining the fleet in the summer of 1969. An operating company to run the service is now in process of formation. La Compagnie Generale Transatlantique (French Line) is one of the participants. This was revealed recently by Messrs Abel Thomas and Charles Marchetti, respectively chairman and president of SEDAM, which is furthering the technical and com- mercial development of amphibious ACVs in France, and in which Bertin, the Compagnie Generale Trans- atlantique, the shipyard Chantiers de 1'Atlantique and many other major French companies hold shares. As already reported in Air-Cushion Vehicles, construction of the first two N.300s is underway at Breguet's Biarritz works; though Breguet is a shareholder in SEDAM its role here is purely as sub-contractor. The first N.300 will start its tests at Biarritz in October and these will continue at the test centre which SEDAM is to open at Etang de Berre, near Mar- seilles. The N.300 will be powered by three Turbomeca Turmo III gas turbines of 1,500 h.p. each. While continuing its studies of the much larger N.500 200-ton, 500- passenger project, and the N.520 ASW derivative for the French Navy, SEDAM has completed the design of a light hovercraft, the N.102, for such applications as customs and harbour authority work and for hovercraft driver training. The proto- type could appear in ten months. The N.102 will have empty and gross weights of 2,8001b and 5,5001b respectively and be powered by a Turbomeca Artouste 2C gas turbine delivering 480 h.p. maximum and with a continuous rating of 380 h.p. Easily air portable, the N.102 will be 27£ft long, 24.2ft wide and 9.6ft high. Width and height can be reduced to 9.9ft and 6.9ft for stowage. Cruising speed on calm water will be about 60 m.p.h. and maximum speed 75 m.p.h., with 3hr endurance at cruising speed. Montreal Bonanza The Expo '67 ACV service, using two SR.N6s, is going like a bomb. Since the start on April 27, 147,342 passengers had been carried by July 12. The highest daily total is 4,362. Operations are reaching 160 journeys daily and load factors reaching 90 per cent, Hoverwork reports. Big Move A 300,000gal bulk storage tank, weighing 60 tons, and measuring 50ft in diameter and 30ft high was due last Saturday, July 15, to be moved on an air cushion trapped by a flexible skirt. The move, at Esso's Mode Wheel Terminal, Manchester, is probably the first time that such a large object has been air-floated The details were worked out at the NPL's Hovercraft Unit at Hythe, for Hovercraft Development Ltd. Work on the exploitation of air-cushion technology for industrial purposes,
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