Page 23 - Theory and Design of Air Cushion Craft

Introduction to hovercraft

(a).

Fig. 1.10 First Chinese experimental hovercraft (with plenum chamber cushion) successfully operated in long
range in the coast of Port Lu Shun in July 1959, (a) on beach; (b) operating at high speed.

Since these first sea trials for hovercraft were successfully undertaken both in China
and England, the number of hovercraft designed and built for both commercial and
military purposes has exceeded 2000 world-wide, including as many as 1000 Soviet
hover platforms in the Arctic and oil exploration fields. Thanks to rapidly developing
materials, engines, electronics and computer systems in recent years, hovercraft have
developed quickly from the research stage into commercial and military applications,
(see comparisons with other transport concepts in Table 1.2) reaching the high speeds
aimed for in just 20 years, a rare achievement in the development of transport con-
cepts. Examples of this are the US SES-100B, weighing a hundred tons and operated
at a speed of 90.3 knots, and the BHC SR.N4 ACV which has achieved similar speeds
to service across the English channel when lightly loaded.
Hovercraft have had their difficulties during development in the 60s and 70s, in
the same way as most new transport concepts. The concept has now matured, and
SES in particular are beginning to be developed at the size originally predicted by
the early pioneers: 1000 tonnes and larger. Although different approaches have been
adopted for hovercraft development in different countries, they have followed almost
the same stages: initial research, concept development, market development and then
the development stage again to improve economic performance to compete with
craft such as fast catamarans which have developed so rapidly since 1985.
In the following sections of Chapter 1 we will summarise the development of