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Aviation History
1967
1967 - 1443.PDF
Air-Cushion Vehicles FLIGHT International supplement, 24 August 1967 The big question which arises as the 1967 season draws to a close is where Hovertravel goes from here. In its two-year life, the world's only truly commercial ACV operation is at a crossroads in its development. It is unsubsidised by the State, by a manu- facturer or by an associated company. Because it has operated so intensively it has run into problems of ACV wear and maintenance which other operators have not yet come across— for instance, Hovertravel has found that around the 2,500hr mark in the life of an N6, bouyancy tank fittings run into fatigue problems. It is obvious that the SR.N6s will be even less economic propositions next season and the year after that, but what is there to replace them? The company has every confidence in the HM.2, Hovermarine's sidewall, which Hovertravel will operate from Southampton to Cowes next year, but it is not amphibious and hardly suited to the shoreline terminals at Ryde and Southsea. Hoverwork, the charter company, is also interested in the newly announced Cushioncraft CC-7, but the ten-seater will not be usable as a passenger- carrying craft in the real sense. BHC have the civil version of the BH.7 to offer Hovertravel, who would be interested in it if it was modified for civil operations—two doors are considered essential, for example. But in general the company feels dictated to by manufacturers as far as new equipment is concerned and would like to see an end of the present virtual monopoly. It is said that civil operators are told that design para- 65OO[- 6OOOJ- 55OO- PASSENGERS CARRIED WINTER 1966/67 WEEK ENDING 5th NOVEMBER 1966 - 22nd APRIL 1967 5 12 19 26 NOVEMBER 3 10 17 24 31 DECEMBER 7 14 21 25 JANUARY 4 II 18 25 FEBRUARY 4 II 18 25 MARCH 15 22 APRIL The level of traffic across the Solent during winter the period although uneconomic, provides a useful public service meters are set by military require- ments, while the military buyers are told that commercial requirements are paramount. A wider field of manu- facturers, Hovertravel contends, would provide a wider range of methods of making ACVs, so that vehicles could be produced economically and suited more to the specialist ACV market than to the aircraft market to which craft have inevitably become tied. The cost of reliability in aviation is phenomenal, but there is no reason to bring this level of reliability—and its attendant cost—across to the ACV field, says Hovertravel. Hovertravel is a private company: without some support from the Government or a manufacturer—pay- ment for development costs or for the sale of operational experience—it is very difficult to see what the future will be. Investors naturally want a return on their capital, and staff need security. The company would like to see the Ministry of Technology taking a more firm line in this matter of development costs, for instance, and feel that operational experience which Hovertravel has gained is all the more valid because it has been acquired in a truly commercial environment. Whether such a state of affairs will last much longer depends very much on what new equipment can be offered, and what attitude the Govern- ment finally decides to take on ACV operators. This may mean State injec- tion of capital into the company, with or without strings. If so, it is to be hoped that the consistently hard- headed commercial outlook which the company has so realistically pursued in the past will not be thrown over- board and drowned in a welter of "nationalised" bureaucracy. Hovertravel's charter subsidiary, Hoverwork, also uses the Ryde terminal and here passengers embark in one of the SR.N6s 23
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