Page 55 - Theory and Design of Air Cushion Craft

SES and ACV developments in the 1990s 39

Fig. 1.41 70 seat/sleeping berth, 2 tonne cargo, steel hull, 33 knot SES, delivered for service August 1995.

Fig. 1.42 ACV model testing on simulating ice surface.

SES to be operated on lakes, rivers, around the coast and at sea in China for
water transport, tours, passenger ferries, oil exploration and other applications.

1.6 SES and ACV developments in the 1990s

In 1984/85 a shipbuilder in Norway, Bradrene Aa, teamed up with a firm of Naval
Architects, Cirrus, to design a large passenger SES, after being impressed with the
performance of the US Navy's test craft SES200 when it performed a series of demon-
strations in Europe for NATO. Their concept was a GRP hulled development similar
in concept to the BH-110, with catamaran hulls and diesel engine power. Propulsion