300-year history of hovercraft

In American war movies or action movies, you often see soldiers landing from the sea on land or moving flexibly in wetlands with a special means. It is neither a ship nor a motorized vehicle, it moves on water and on land but does not touch the surface. This special medium is called a hovercraft or air cushion.

Hovercraft Model - 1500 model of Hover-Shuttle company in USA

Hovercraft - a type of craft (craft) capable of hovering in the air (hover). Air cushion is a special means of transportation - create a cushion of air underneath and move on the air cushion. It can move on a relatively flat surface, be it a slope, water surface, freezing surface without even touching the surface.

Emanuel Swedenborg - The person who developed the first air cushion model

The first design of the hovercraft was first introduced in 1716 by Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772), a Swedish designer, theologian and philosopher. He came up with a design shaped like a man-made upside-down boat, with a control position in the center and a paddle that compresses the air below to lift the ship. However, it was just a blueprint that was still on paper, not built because it was obvious that it was not possible to use a human force to create a strong enough force to lift the ship.

In the mid-1870s, Sir John Isaac Thornycroft, an English engineer who experimented with a technique of using air to reduce drag between water and the hull based on his idea, was given a patent for his invention. This technique, however, his experiment did not receive much attention because it cannot be applied in practice.

It was not until 1915-1916 that the first air cushion model was successfully built by the Royal Navy - Austro-Hungarian Empire in Pola, based on Dagobert's design Müller von Thomamühl for the naval arsenal. On September 2, 1915, the first gas night model was launched, the crew consisted of 5 people and reached the fastest speed at that time, named: 'Hydrofoil with Thomamühl system'.

Thomamühl's model was tested in 1916

In 1916, Thomamühl's model was tested to develop a fast torpedo boat, equipped with two torpedoes, a Schwarzlose machine gun and a number of "water bombs" used to make anti-submarine ships. It has 2 propellers, each propeller is powered by a 6-cylinder engine to propel the vessel forward, another 4-cylinder engine is used to blow hot air down the hull, creating a cushion The gas helps the ship move on the air cushion. After the marine test was launched, the trial was finally canceled in 1917, after which the Austrian Navy - Hung officially stopped conducting studies on this type of ship.

In 1927, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, a Soviet scientist, first described the Land / Water Effect and the theory of aerodynamic methods for air-cushion vehicles in his research paper. about Air Resistance and Express Train.

Finally, in 1931, Toivo J. Kaario, a Finnish engineer, was also head of the Valtion Lentokonetehdas aircraft engine factory, beginning to design the air cushion model. He conducted fabrication and experimentation, calling it pintaliitäjä (Glider on the surface) and he received a patent for this invention. Kaario is considered to be the first to successfully build the air cushion vehicle until the present time, however, he could not continue to develop it because he could not find funding.

Kaario's ship model in 1931

Around the same time with Kaario, Vladimir Levkov - a Russian professor working in Applied Dynamics at Donskoi Polytechnic University, successfully researched and built air cushion model in 1927, Its head is a circular and symmetrical model. In 1932, he launched the air cushion model with a length of 2.5m, characterized by an elongated form, equipped with two engines and this design was successfully operated.

Levkov's L-1 form in 1935

Konstantin Tsiolkovsky was the first to describe ground effects and the theory of aerodynamic calculation methods for air-cushion vehicles in the study of 'Air resistance and Express Train' of I was in 1927.

Since then, Vladimir Levkov began to have the idea of ​​developing air-cushioning vehicles. In the mid-1930s, Leckov assembled about 20 aerial vessels (mainly for military purposes). From the L1 model is just a simple design with 2 small wooden rafts equipped with three engines, gradually improved until the L5 model has been successfully tested with an extra engine horizontally behind the hull. The task of creating an air cushion on the bottom by blowing air flow through a funnel between the hull, this is called the L-5 high-speed fast attack boat.

Levkov's Form L-5 in 1937

Later, there were also many attempts to build this air cushioning method including the designs of the Russian and German navies in World War I.

In the United States in World War II, Charles J. Fletcher, a reserve naval soldier of the US Army, launched a design called 'Glidemobile' (Glider) , this design is based on the principle of creating a flow. The gas continuously compresses on the lower surface (possibly ground or water surface), lifting it up from 25cm to 0.6m above the ground. Shortly after the test at Lake Beezer, Sparta Township, New Jersey, this design was immediately taken over by the US Department of Defense, and they deny the creative copyright entirely of Fletcher. It was not until 1985 that the patent protection department successfully sued the US Department of Defense, and made a compensation claim of about $ 6 million in 1990.

Fletcher's train model

In the United States, Dr. W. Bertelsen also researched and developed a model of air cushion. Dr. Bertelsen built an initial prototype of this vehicle in 1959 (called AeroMobile 35-B), and its first photo was published in Popular Science magazine with an image of riding a car. on land and on water in April 1959. Other articles describing his invention were also published in this journal in July 1959.

Images of Bertelsen and his design in Popular Science magazine

The first person to successfully build a hovercraft successfully both technically and commercially was an English inventor, Christopher Cockerell, in 1955.

In 1952, Cockerell studied air lubrication systems, and then he studied the idea of ​​creating an air cushion. He performed simple experiments using a vacuum cleaner motor and two cylindrical boxes to create a jet engine, the key to inventing air-powered vessels. He demonstrated the feasibility of this medium when it could create air cushion to move on completely different surfaces such as swamp, ground, water surface, ice surface . on that idea, he gave launched SR-N1 air cushion model and officially operated on June 11, 1959.

Cockerell's first hovercraft was launched

Shortly after, he made the trip from France to England to attend the 50th anniversary of Bleriot's flight. After that, he and his important partner, engineer Denys Bliss, jointly perfected it, so that in 1962, the true commercial air cushion ship was born. The patent for this invention was co-awarded to both Cockerell and Bliss in July 1967. Cockerell was knighted for his invention in 1969. He named the "hovercraft" to describe his invention.

An air cushion vessel is used for fire fighting in the UK

Over the history of development over 300 years, from Swedenborg's first sketchboard, to the first ship of Thomamühl, Kaario's pintaliitäjä followed by many efforts of inventors for hundreds of years, and then to Cockerell's first commercial product, to this day, the hovercraft has always been perfected and improved to become an extremely versatile transport vehicle that could be a means of moving in the future. hybrid again. It is used both military and civilian, from fast lander ships of the army, coast patrol boats, swamp ships, ice moving ships and to passenger ferries and There are many other applications. Therefore, in addition to straight-up planes, air cushion ships deserve to become the most mobile means of people.