Hovercrafts
by Zach

What are hovercrafts?  Are they: 

• Cars that have no wheels?  

• Boats with propellers?  

• Vehicles designed to travel inches above land and water?

• Helicopters that have propellers in the back and on the bottom?

Without lift, hovercrafts would be useless.  Propellers shoot air down at the surface of the water or the ground to lift the hovercraft a few inches.  Hovercrafts use something called a skirt to hold air inside the area underneath the vehicle.  The skirt must be the perfect length and weight otherwise air would escape from under the vehicle, and the hovercraft could hit the ground.  I personally would not want to be on that hovercraft. 

Hovercrafts need a lot of power to turn all their propellers.  In fact, they need two engines.  One turns the propellers that make it lift off the ground.  The other engine turns the propellers that push the vehicle in the direction it wants to go. 

Hovercrafts have many uses.  Some of them include:

• Police and Fire Department use

• Ice and water transportation

• Oil spill clean up

• Wildlife conservation and rescue

• Crop spraying

How do you think a hovercraft could help police and fire departments?

• People always want to ride in them so they jump into the hovercraft from out of the building  

•  To help them rescue people where a boat or car could not reach

• They are faster than police cars 

• They are safe

The concept of a vehicle that could ride on a cushion of air has been around for almost three hundred years.  However, it was a British inventor in 1952 that turned the concept into what we know today as the hovercraft.  The first hovercraft that could carry passengers came out in 1961.  By 1970, very large hovercrafts were carrying passengers and cars across the English Channel.  Today, many people own their own small hovercrafts and mostly use them for their own pleasure.

 Citations

Online Resources

"History of the hovercraft." Gizmo Highway Technoligy Guide. 28 December 2004 <http.//www.gizmohighway.com/history/hovercraft.htm>.

"Hovercraft."   Springhurst. 28 December 2004 <http://www.springhurst.org/students/hovercraft.htm>.

"What are Hovercrafts." Quick Tech Hobby. 28 December 2004 <http://www.quicktechhobby.com/Hovercrafts/what_are_hovercrafts.htm>.

  Images

Permission to use photograph of hovercraft from <http://www.gizmohighway.com/> Gary Watts.  <gizmo@intown.com.au> "RE:  Permission to Use Pictures." 29 January 2005. Personal e-mail.

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