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On the Performance of the Hovercraft Single-Wall Skirt

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 June 2016

A. A. West
A. A. West*
Affiliation:
University College of Swansea
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Summary

A simple analysis is presented for the air flow and nozzle power requirements of hovercraft fitted with skirts on which the peripheral jet is blown down the inner skirt face—the “single-wall” type. The theory, which utilises experimental wall-jet data, is applicable to the equilibrium jet state.

A comparison is made with analyses for the air flow and nozzle power requirements of plenum chamber craft and hovercraft fitted with twin-wall skirts. It is concluded that, for a given gap between the skirt bottom and the terrain, at normal operating conditions the order of merit is twin-wall skirt, single-wall skirt, plenum chamber.

Type
Research Article
Information
Aeronautical Quarterly , Volume 18 , Issue 4 , November 1967 , pp. 321 - 331
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Aeronautical Society. 1967

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References

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