HOVERING CRAFT & HYDROFO/L THE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF AIR CUSHION VEHICLES AND HYDROFOILS UUUW british hovercraft corporation limited YEOVIL ENGLAND HOVERING CRAFT & HYDROFOiL FOUNDED OCTOBER 1961 F~rstHovering Craft & tiydrufoil Monthly in the World Ltrrya-1 in service OM tlie Moscoi.v-Volgn cnnal 11 has ~ecently been announced from Moscow that a new wele publ~shedIn lzveslzyu of August 11th type of vessel named the Larya-l has been put in servlce The Opytniy IS propelled by a water-let un~twhlcb diaws on the MOSC~W-V~I~Bcanal between ICalmingrad and &hev 111 water thiough a gsat~ngin the bottom and elect5 it wlth on the uppel waters of the Volga Descr~bedas a "gl~ssolr" [orce thlough the stern As she gathcls way the bow lifts th~svessel resembles a rather mole soph~st~catedversion of ~apldly,lhus produc~ngan all-cushlon effect beneath the hull Lhe Seatluck developed by Rotork Malli~eLtd, of Bath. 'Ihe (as In the Seatruck and 11s smallei plototype the Aquaglider) advantages claimed for each of these are slrnllar high speed The net result IS something rather like that of a s~de-wall pel holse-power, relatively low fuel con\umpt~on,rclativcly hovercraft, though the erlt~re hull never rises deal of the large payload, good manoeuvrability, and, above all, small water and the alr-cushion 1s produced naturally, without the draught, whrch pcrmlts of use in shallow waterways and in use of fans The up-tilted how and the absence of a vulnerable combinat~onwlth the bow deslgn, makes 11 posslble to embalk plopeller make ~t posslblc for the vessel to run bows-on onto and d~scmbarkpassengeis and cargo on any slop~ngfoieshole, any lncllned foieshore, lo1 the embaikat~onor disembalkation thus dispensing with the need of a quay or jetty oC passengers oi cargo, and, In combination wsth the flat, keel- The Zalya-1 when loaded w~thhe1 full capaclty of 65 pas- les5 bottom and the stifi "s~dewalls", malcea 1t possible to jump sengers, draws only 40 cm (I ft 3f Ins), and bas a speed of ova floating obstacles In the fairway such as logs, wh~ch 45 km/h (28 knots) She has a crew of two, a Captain and at celtain seasons arc a serrous problem on many of the Sov~et Engineel whose funct~ons arc ~nterchangeable Four more ~~versThe wheelhouse is just like the cab of a motoxbus vessels of the same type are to be con~pletedby the end of The Opytniy was tried out in iegulal service on two small this yea1 shallow livers or Centlal Russla-the Volkhov, runnmg Into Although not descr~bedIn any detall In Pruvda ol Octobe~ Lake Ladoga, and the Msta, sunnlng ~ntoLake J1'men'-ln 9th, in wh~chthe photograph above appealed, it 1s clear liom 1964 and 1965 and achieved such popularity among the local the appealance of the ciaft that ~t is a perfected veision of a ~nhabltants that the ofices at the Regional Centre we~ede- prototype named the Opylnly (Exper~menlal), developed by luged with letters fiom satisfied passengers protesting at the the Expcrlmental Labolatory of the Leningrad lnstltute of withdrawal of their "watcl-bus", which ss piesumably only Water Transport, of wh~ch a photograph and some detalls pcnd~ngits leplacen~entby one ol the lasya type IN THIS ISSUE Potential US Applications of Tracked Air Cushion Editor : JUANI'TA KALERGHI Vehicle Systems 4 HOVERING CRAFT AND HYDROFOIL is produced by Kalerglri Publications, 50-52 Blui~dforrlStreet, London, WI. Telephone WELheck 8678, Priizted in Great flritaiir The Safety Regulations of Air Cushion Vehicles 20 by Villiers Publicatioizs, Lordon, NW5. Anrrrrnl subscrip- tion: Five Guineas UK and equivalent overseas. USA . Letters to the Editor 31 and Canada $15. Tlzere are twelve issues annrrully. Contentr of this issue are the copyright of Kalergiri Publications. Pem1issiort to reproduce pictures and text can be granted only under written ugreernent. Extracts or comments may be made with due acknowledgerneizt to Hoveping Craft and Hydrofoil. COVER PICTURE : The 140-passerzgea PT.50 hydrofoil "Faia- ADVEIiTJSlNG REPRESENTATIVES light" built by T,eol~oldoRodriquez for the Port Juckson rind GREAT BIilTAlN & EUROPE: International Graplzic Pre.ss Ltd, 2 Dyers Buildings, London ECI; JAPAN: Mnnly Steamship Co Ltd The cl.rrft was hipped to Australia Japan Tmde Service Ltd, Masami ~riilking,1-30 Kondrr Jirnbocho, Clriyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan; HOL,LAND: on October 6/17, ~ndwill he put into rervicc across the Bay of old Teesing, Amsterdum-Z, lirrberzsstraat 68, Sydr1c.y Mr Hovvc~rd R, Iioss is a transportation c~tzulystat Stanford Research Institute, .Merzlo Park, Cnlifornia, located about thirty-fir)? miles south of San Francisco. Mr Ross, who is ~lzirty-six,graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree irz Nnvul Architecture .emd Marine Engirzecrirzg (BSE, NA&ME), and spent the first jcrv years of his career in ship design, Ajtc'r a two-year tour of duty iiz Japan cis an engineer- ing oficer in the U,S Navy, he switched to the nuclear power field and vvorlred ccr a grolip head orz the Enrico Fermi fast breeder reactor projecl ira Detroit, aizd for General Electric Co as r! project erzgiizeer on their fast reactor programme. He received iln advanced degree from Stanford University in Mcclzur~icaE Engirzeering (MSME) under the sponsorship of the Holzors Cooperative Program. His interest in the tracked ACV dates from 1960 when he begarz graduate studies CII Stan- ford. The results of a research project in corz~zectiorz with the Master's degree were reporred in two papers : "Comprehensive Desigrz of High Speed Surface Transportation", Jurzc 1961, and "Engineering Problems of Nigh Speed Surface Trarlsportcztiora", May 1962. In these, he cidvocated the development of a family HOWARD R. ROSS of vehicles using air support and guidance with linear induc- tion nrotors for propulsion. In I964 he left the nuclear field arzd joined the staf of Stanford Resecrrclz Institute, wllere he has since been er~guged full time in transportatiorz reserirch. His priizcipal interest has been seen irz ~dvarzced technology for 1)clssenger trcinsportcition. As for the Sarr Francisco cable cars (above), he writes : "They are (I fine mode of transport. They provide an exciting ~vuyto breathe the c~irurtd enjoy the r~ievvs of the city." INTRODUCTION ESEARCEI and development programmes on tracked all R cushron vehlcle (ACV) systems are now unde~ way in England, France and the United States The Japanese National Railway5 lesearch group ~eccntlyiepolted on rts prellmlnary studle\ of a 300 mph tracked ACV for the Tokyo-Osaka corrl- do1 In the Unrtcd States, the Federal Goveinment, In 1965, vta~teda laige nat~onalp~oglamme to advance the technology of hrgh-speed intercrty ground t~anspo~t The purposc of this papel IS to examlne the cha~actelrstlcs of the [lacked ACV that make 11 potentially attractive; levlew the Birlrsh, French and US programmes; d~scussthe transport lunctlon that the tlackcd ACV could potent~allyserve In the Unlted States; examlne the US n~egalopol~tanreglons whe~e s~lcllsystems could conce~vablybe bullt, and discuss some of the des~gncrltei~a that result when one cons~derssuch techno- logrcally novel concepts In the context of a rcal system CXARACTERZSTICB OF THE TIPACKEII ACV The [racked ACV appears to oKci an dttractlve potentlal foi h~gh-speedlnte~c~ty g~ound transport Although dlflelent ver- slons or it ale being studled, thc trackcd hovelclalt undcl Figure I. FIoverctuft Developrr~erlt Ltrl in Englurzd built this development by I-lopercraft Development Ltd (HDL) In England h ft long operating model of a truclted hovercraft, which uses 19 repreyentatlve of th~sconcept The tlacked hovercraft uses peripherul jet air cushion pcrd~ for suspen~iolz and guidnrzce pe~~pheraljet alr cushlon pads Col suspension and guidance, rind a lirzeur irzduction motor for propulsior? The aluminium and l~nea~rnductron motois lor propulsron The novelty ol thrs "rotor" for the motor is the vertical centre plate. Wound stator elegant concept de~ivesl~om the nialrrage ol these two rcla- poles on board the vehicle, energised by polyphase uc, draw t~velydcveloped technolog~es It appears to have the potentlal the vehicle ulong the traclc at ubout 30 myh. Power is distri- for s~gnificantadvantages in terms of cost and perlolmance as buted through brass strips embedded in the top surface of the cornpaled w~thh~gh-speed tralns such as the Japanese New track. The model is not a scale reduction of a full-sized vehicle: Toka~doL~ne (NTL) Some ol these advantages are the uir cuslziorz pcids, for example, are proportiorzately much lrrrger in the model. (Photo courtesy of Hovercraft Develop- @ Tn~tialcosts oi tde (lack structures may poss~blybe lowel, rnent L,td) even lor the hrgher speeds contcmplated Thrs 15 belleved possrble slnce cons~derablecvldence ex~ststhat substan- trally Irghtei-we~ght vehicles can be cleveloped, Impact BiilTISN TRACKED ACV PiiOGRAMME loadrngs would be mln~m~sed,lowel veh~cleprofiles would In England, tho hoverelaft concept was pioneered by Mr peimlt smallel tunnel cr 05s-sections, and I equlrements Tor Chi~slopherCockerell, rormeily rechnlcal Dlrector of Hovel- hack preclslon mrght be greatly reduced crarl Dcvelopnlent Ltd (HDl.,) at Hythc The IIDL programme @ With th~sconcept, the opelat~ngcost? (at thc same speed has been sponsoied by the Natlonal Rcsearch Development as thc N'TL) assoc~dtedwrth vehicle and hack malnten- Corporatlon (NRDC) In 1960, research and development were ance may be gieatly leduced, because he vehlcle does ln~traicdon the tracked hove~craltor trackcd ACV Results of not contact the track In add~t~onto this, ope~atlngcosts