Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T15:16:15.606Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Physical Principles of Hovercraft

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 July 2016

W. A. Mair*
Affiliation:
Engineering Laboratory, University of Cambridge

Extract

Any vehicle that is required to travel at high speed over the surface of the earth (either land or water) should have

  • (a) Low drag and

  • (b) Some form of spring suspension.

Anyone who doubts the need for the second of these, for travel over water, should consider the accelerations involved in following the surface of the sea at high speed and observe the behaviour of a high-speed motor boat on rough water.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Aeronautical Society 1964

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1.Chaplin, H. R. Theory of the Annular Nozzle in Proximity to the Ground. David Taylor Model Basin Aero Report 923, July 1957.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2.Stanton Jones, R. The Development of the Saunders-Roe Hovercraft SRN 1. Symposium on Ground Effect Phenomena, Princeton University (Saunders-Roe Report No. T.P. 414), October 1959.Google Scholar
3.Stanton Jones, R. Some Design Problems of Hovercraft. I.A.S. Paper No. 61–45, January 1961.Google Scholar
4.Kuhn, R. E. and Carter, A. W.Research Related to Ground-Effect Machines. Symposium on Ground Effect Phenomena, Princeton University, 1959.Google Scholar
5.Poland, G. A., Tattersall, E. G. and Unsworth, R. G. Unpublished Report. Hovercraft Development Ltd., 1960.Google Scholar
6.Cockerell, C. S. Some possible future developments in Hovercraft Technique. University of Southampton and R.Ae.S. Joint Symposium on Hovercraft, Southampton, March 1963. Published in Air-Cushion Vehicles, Supplement to Flight International, May 1963.Google Scholar
7.Cockerell, C. S. An Introduction to the General Principles of Hovercraft. Hovercraft Symposium, Swedish Society of Aeronautics, November 1963. Published in Air-Cushion Vehicles, Supplement to Flight International, December 1963.Google Scholar
8.Lamb, H.Hydrodynamics (6th Edition). Cambridge University Press, 1932.Google Scholar
9.Crewe, P. R. and Egginoton, W. J.The Hovercraft—A New Concept in Maritime Transport. Trans. Roy. Inst. Nav. Arch., Vol. 102, pp. 315356, 1960.Google Scholar
10.Barratt, M. J. Unpublished Report. Hovercraft Development Ltd., 1962.Google Scholar
11.Havelock, T. H.The Theory of Wave Resistance. Proc. Roy. Soc. A, Vol. 138, pp. 339348, 1932.Google Scholar