Improvements in gas-cushion vehicles

Abstract

Abstract 1,089,464. Air cushion vehicles. HOVERCRAFT DEVELOPMENT Ltd. March 15, 1966 [Feb. 25, 1965], No. 8255/65. Heading B7K. An air cushion vehicle in which the sides at least of the cushion space 13 are bounded by a segmented flexible skirt is provided at its rear and/or front ends with a transversely extending inflatable skirt portion 16 comprising flexible sheet material 17 attached at 18 and 19 to the underside of the vehicle body and inflated by air bled through a duct 25 from the main cushion, drain holes 26 being provided. To protect the sheet 17 from wear, as when passing over an obstacle 11a, a plurality of laterally spaced strips 27 of flexible wearresistant are attached to the body at 28, the rearward portions extending partially around and spaced from the rear curved portion of the skirt. Alternatively the members 27 may be tubes inflated from a source separate from that which supplies the cushion so that when the vehicle rests on water with skirt 16 deflated, the buoyant members 27 will hold the skirt collapsed against the underside of the vehicle body and thereby prevent the ingress of water.

Inventors

• 👤 Rowland Delville Hunt

Bibliographic Details