Griffon Hoverwork Achievement Award
Griffon Hoverwork receive Special Achievement Award 2024 from The Hovercraft Society
The Hovercraft Society has made this award in recognition of delivery of the three GH 12000 passenger hovercraft to Oita Prefecture in Japan this year, together with a significant training and support programme.
Hovercraft Events in August
There are three hovercraft events over the next month or so that may interest visitors to this site.
These are globally distributed events that are the ideal way to find out more about light hovercraft in the USA and Europe! All these events’ organisers are proud to welcome visitors, so long as they have contact in advance so can plan for it!
The first is in Boulogne, France on 10/11th August – a celebration of fifty years since the Boulogne Hoverport was opened for high-speed travel between Boulogne and Dover.
The second is the Hoverclub of America Muscoda, Wisconsin Hover-in weekend at Victoria Park also 09/11th August
The third is in Saalburg, Germany from 28th August to 1st September. This is the 2024 World Hovercraft Racing Championship meeting.
Visitor News 8th May 2024
A brief update with a focus on the energy transition.
The first quarter of this year has been a significant period for ACV and SES with the completion of the Oita hover ferry delivery and training period, and just recently the partnership agreement between ESNA and Strategic Marine.
Right now, Griffon Hoverwork and ESNA are busy with engineering and design work which will stretch through this year and more on new projects. UMOE also have the next stage of their hydrogen fuel cell SES to complete following approval in principle from DNV.
The ‘energy transition’ is providing major challenges, for the designs as such, and rising costs, while the demand side of the market pushes for the transition.
Visitor News April 2024
I have just checked the last time a blog like this was posted and found that it was May 2023. Rather a long pause. During 2024 let’s hope it is possible to keep up a more regular blog that site visitors can see and get a feel for what is going on in the world of Air Cushion Technology.
In this issue of the Visitors News I update you a little and aim to get into a more regular posting during the coming months.
Visitor News May 2023
Up until now the focus has been on preparing the News Notes for members, meetings on Zoom that are posted to THS YouTube channel, and loading technical papers and conference materials all to the members part of the site.
We have invited non-members to presentation events, as you can see from the Visitor events menu item so there has been some attention to a wider audience. There is also a quantity of material available in the open library on the library tab.
So far the open ‘News Blog’ has not been a regular item. Starting with this post it is hoped to make it a little more regular and informative, for both members and non-members!
First, a taste of what is in the latest (May 2023) News Note issued to members by email, and available on the site once a member is logged in.
New Films added to THS YouTube Channel
Four films have been added to the THS YouTube library, as follows:
– Apethorpe Rally 1966 HCGB (11:47)
– Rallying in 1968 HCGB (9:30)
– Rallies 1968 Combo HCGB (29:41)
– Film from Bob Windt 1971 (5:46)
These are all films digitised from 8 and Super8 film that has been in the Bliault ‘Archive’ for several decades.
At that time personal or amateur hovercraft were developing mostly by individual experiment and are a contrast with the aeronautical technology being applied at that time at Saunders Roe, HDL, Vickers, and Vosper.
SES Resistance Analysis paper added to members library
ASNE Paper from June 1989 by THS Member John Lewthwaite has been added to the SES/ACV Drag page under the members library
Fifth International ACV Conference added
A guide page and the papers from the Fifth International ACV Conference have now be loaded to the site. There are 12 papers available from the 15 presentations made.
October Presentation Recording Available
Chris Fitzgerald of Neoteric Hovercraft gave his talk about his experience with the Light Hovercraft Market over the last four decades or so on Thursday 13th October.
A recording of his presentation together with a discussion session has been loaded on our YouTube Channel.
History and Hovercraft Drag
Making a start to build pages for Air Cushion History and secondly for ACV/SES Drag some reference material has been loaded on the site. First, there is now a page for Air Cushion History. This page can be viewed from either the open library, or members library.
There are a number of books giving a historical perspective. A listing of some of these is given on the page. Clicking on the images should take you via a link to Amazon for the book, if it is still available.
We will add papers summarising developments from the early 1960’s in due course and reflect that in later blog pieces. Where appropriate we will make these available to visitors, otherwise documents will be available to registered members once logged in.
Tech Sec Notes 29th August
During the last week I discovered I had a copy of the Conference held in December 1985 jointly by The Hovercraft Society and the British Association for the Advancement of Science. It was held to celebrate the first 25 years of ACV and Air Cushion development generally in the UK and was attended by Sir Christopher Cockerell. Nine Technical papers were presented in the course of an afternoon, followed by a celebratory dinner for the participants.
The programme and papers are available just now under both the open library and the Members Library. At the end of September access will be limited to members logging on to the site.
Tech Sec Notes July 30th 2022
Being the end of July we have our 4th News Note of 2022 just published. The full issue is available to registered members and subscribers under the Member News menu item which is visible after logging in.
For those of you not yet registered I give a flavour for the content in the blog post. Out of interest I am also including a couple of images from the 1980’s and 1990’s from my ‘library’. More info should eventually land in the ACV and SES Summary data pages in the open library.