Patrons
Patrons
Christopher Bland
Viscount Coke
Joseph Sullivan
Ray Wheeler
Frances Cockerell
Lady Wilson of Rievaulx
Lord Hotham
Sir Ranulph Fiennes
Museum Office:
Daedalus Site
Chark Lane
Lee-on-the-Solent
Hampshire
PO13 9NY
ISSN: 0957-4263
Editor: Timothy O’Brien
Website:
www.hovercraft-museum.org
Office Tel (answerphone): 023 9255 2090
E-mail: enquiries@hovercraft-museum.org
Submissions: newsletter@hovercraft-museum.org
The Hovercraft Museum Newsletter
30 Years of LCACs
ISSUE 60
December 2014
Museum Trustees:
Robert Hiseman
Warwick Jacobs
Chris Potter
Ben Avery
The Hovercraft Museum Trust is a Registered Charity No. 1003689
Emma Pullen
News in Brief
The largest hovercraft built in Britain in over 30 years has been delivered this December to
Southern Korea to join their hovercraft coastguard fleet. The BHT 150 pictured undergoing trials in
the Solent is the second BHT 150 built, with the first built in the USA for the Aleutian Islands. This
first craft was recently sold, by auction, to North America for use in the oil industry.
The ex-Hovertravel BHT 130 has been relicensed to train the Korean pilots in the Solent.
AP188-001 Idun Viking the Australian built Manta were recently scrapped at Southampton, but the museum was
able to save components from each craft. The museum turned down the cockpit of Manta as had been vandalized
and stripped of all its controls. The cockpit of 001 was saved and is on display in Hampshire, owned by Harry
Pounds, a local scrap man, at local fort.
ACU4...thirty years of LCAC use
Assault Combat Unit 4 and not amphibious craft unit is situated in Norfolk Virginia and is on the Atlantic
coast at the edge of Chesapeake Bay USA and is home to over 32 LCAC US Marines hovercraft .
In March is this year Commander Landis took over the fleet and got 22, one hundred tonne craft out to sea
for this formation picture led by craft 002 with yellow bow thrusters the earliest in the fleet from 1984. This
craft is the oldest in the fleet as 001 was used for spares. Most the fleet has been SLEP( service life
extension programme)to enable 15 more years from each hull with added technology and improvements to
include fly by wire. The final 8 craft are being SLEP on site unlike many others returned to Textron Marine
in Louisiana or at boat yards in Norfolk. This has resulted in three types of craft. Four giant hangers can
each house 2 craft each and 3 giant tents house recent work at the base.
Each craft has a permanent crew of five and the Navy and Marines work together to keep the fleet active
and used worldwide. Recently returning from Morocco, 8 craft deployed to Japan joining 6 Japanese run
LCACs to keep a Pacific presence. In Japan giant floating barges with ability to submerge provide
platforms for loading and unloading at sea something which will suit the latest order of US Navy ordered
LCACs. Over 15 new craft are on order which could potentially be 100 new craft from 2015. These new
designs called SHIP TO SHORE CONNECTORS (SSC) will be for the US Navy not the US Marines and
used differently at different base.
Possibly in 10-15 years there will be nearing 200 of the 100 tonne craft in the US fleet with the older SLEP
LCACs and newer SSC. The production line is restarting in New Orleans and on the Mississippi and
possibly Norfolk and are the longest and largest production lines of any large hover with capacity of 8 craft
year.
Presently 32 craft are on the ACU 4 base, with 4 being scrapped, and a similar number at Camp Pendleton
California at ACU6. ACU 5 occasionally has had craft and in Florida is the test centre with 4-5 craft for
trials use.
ACU 4 was run for many years by Cdr Joseph Greene …. Pictured above and is now retired and the host
and public relations face. He had a budget annually of $25 million as base commander, which is now $18
million as most craft have been SLEP. Near to the base and pad is the Navy training bases where giant
simulators get pilots (craft commanders) up to scratch. Most the crew are in their mid-early 20s and in the
cockpit are left to right the navigator/engineer/craftmaster and 2 passenger seats behind (wave and troop
commanders) with view of the car deck .On the port side of the craft are deck crew in their forward cabin
including the deck loadmaster up top to load up to 70 tonnes of cargo. The newer SSC can manage 10
tonnes more as a battle tank has got heavier in 10 years. A deck engineer and 16 troops are on the lower
deck cabin.
The base sees training and maintenance continually and supporting presently 8 craft away on ships and
typically 5 craft crew training night and day. Presently a Kuwait base is being backed with craft.
Recent changes and improvements have seen 2 giant lift fans replacing the four smaller, still running
vertically. This sees less erosion on the leading blade edges halving maintenance .These were 63 inch
diameter double entry double discharge centrifugal fans .Some craft have four bladed props at 11.75 FT and
others 5 bladed and potentially the SSC will have 6 blades in bigger ducts.
They have variable pitch propellers and also have giant bow thrusters using their own air give 30% of the
thrust.
The craft are solid rectangular wide craft at 81ft by 47ft off cushion and 91ft by only 1ft wider at 47ft wide
on cushion with a 5ft cushion depth!
Typically the craft does 50 knots in sea state 2 but crew reported speeds of 90 mph and 80+ in calm or
smooth wet sand conditions. With four ETF40B gas turbines giving a total of 16,000 HP. This is almost
equivalent to the SRN4 at 300 tonnes!! However the on-board computers and override systems on the SLEP
craft don’t enable full power so easily.
The SLEP craft also see a reduced operating cost and reduced maintenance programme and above all
enhanced functionality. Recent deployments have seen relief work after Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf coast
and Somalia Bangladesh and Liberia and Haiti, Kuwait and Australia.
More news in Brief……
President Sadats Tiger 12 hovercraft has emerged from the presidential palace carpark
from underground storage after 30 years in Cairo Egypt. This Air Vehicles hovercraft had
been a gift to the president in the 1970’s and apparently was only used once.
Some of the AP188 items recovered from Hythe, saved from scrap.
Guy Martin Hovercraft Speed Attempt
By Bill Baker
On the fourth of June I received a ‘phone call from Amy Roff on behalf of North One Television. She mentioned that
her company were looking to do a speed run with Guy Martin driving a hovercraft and were we interested in being
involved.
I had heard via the rumour mill that something of this nature was floating around in the ether, so I asked for more
details as to what was involved.
After a visit from Graham Smiles it transpired that another hovercraft manufacturer had been asked in January but
had just backed out and they were looking for a replacement.
Both BBV and Ivanoff Hovercraft had been approached, so I phoned Magnus Ivanoff to see if we could work
together or if he wanted to put in an individual quote. Due to the logistics of his Swedish location I think he did not
put in a serious bid.
My next move was to find the parameters under which this attempt would be carried out, and to find suitable
power units that I could beg, borrow or buy.
Many speeds have been quoted for hovercraft, from the cross channel Super 4s downwards, but the American, Bob
Windt’s, craft is the only one given an official Guinness speed at 85.4 mph. This was set in 1995 on the River Douro
in Portugal by his 19 ft Mississippi cruiser. At the time there were no constraints as to the size or design of craft
being used for a record attempt although many of the racing craft did so unofficially within their respective formula
criteria.
For our attempt, and as this was to be for an entry in the Guinness book of records they set the requirements,
which were that the participating craft had to comply with regulations as set out by the World Hovercraft
Federation
In 2002 regulations were compiled by Bob Rennick, largely based on the then regulations for formula racing craft. I
contacted the WHF to get clarification on various issues but primarily whether an open formula beyond the F1
would be allowed by them which would have allowed us to build a larger craft to challenge Bob’s record.
Unfortunately I am still awaiting a reply.
The WHF chairman was contacted by the film company and the technical officer updated the regulations by bringing
the formula engine capacities in line with current racing practice, and adding a weight restriction. This was done
part way through the build but we were able to comply with the 300kg maximum weight limit to save later
argument.
At this point, realising the constraints to the design it was decided to use F1 type power units so I contacted Dan
Turnbull, our current F1 champion who offered his spare thrust engine and Les Bran who had been in F1 using a
Suzuki 1000cc thrust engine and Westlake lift engine. As Les is now in F2 the engines were available so a purchase
price was agreed for one and a half lift engines, and one modified and one standard Suzuki for thrust.
Events changed during the build as the engine parts only came together at the last minute.
The contract to build the craft was completed on August the 30th - eleven days later Guy and the film crew arrived
for a day to be involved in the build process.
A few days later we fitted the GPS Speedo(Demon Tweeks ) and the GPS transponder to a standard BBV 4 craft
which we took to our local airfield to test out the system of measuring the course, the Leica equipment supplied by
Mike Hopkins from Storm Geomatics is traditionally used to accurately position buildings using satellite positioning.
As we needed a longer hull we used a modified BBV 4 top moulding into which we grafted a lower single seat from
one of the BBV racing hulls, and a 1.25 metre thrust duct; the underside of the craft consisted of sections of our
standard racing craft mouldings with a mixture of open and pressure segments around the modified nose shape,
and a bag skirt used at the rear and rear sides.
The lift installation was standard for an F1 craft and the front cover, standard on the BBV4, was used with the front
opened up to improve air flow. The thrust engine was fitted behind the driver, driving via a prop shaft borrowed
from Rupert’s racing craft.
We had provisionally fitted the thrust duct with the thrust fan frame centrally in the craft but when the engine
became available only then did we realise that the position of the exhaust etc., necessitated that the engine output
shaft be offset in the hull, and so the duct fan frame etc., had to be re fitted. Twin rudders and an elevator were
used but time did not allow straightners to be made.
The trailer was modified to accept the modified hull shape and eighteen days after Guy’s visit we took the craft to
Carsington Water in the Peak District, to give it its first run. Although both engines had been started in the
workshop we were unable to take the craft out in the field for a run as the thrust engine lacked carburettor stacks
on which to mount the air cleaner. The day before we went to Carsington a local grass track racer who also uses
this type of engine lent me a set as part of an air cleaner I bought from him.
Guy did the introductions of the craft to camera, and Rupert took it out for its first run. The lake is over a kilometre
wide and three or so long, the water was nice and smooth and Rupert was soon a dot of spray in the distance, he
then turned to run along the lake. The acceleration was extraordinary. Leaving the spray behind him, he saw
seventy mph on the GPS Speedo before coming back for Guy to have a play.
Guy took the craft out for a gentle run to familiarise himself with his new toy. Bearing in mind that his previous
operational experience on hovercraft probably amounted to less than an hour in total he was understandably
cautious. After probably less than fifteen minutes (I was behind an island and couldn’t see), the lift fan exploded
and the craft was ignominiously brought back partially supported between two rescue boats but water still
managed to get into the thrust engine.
And so ended the first lesson.
As it was late in the afternoon we took the craft home to get it ready for the final run in eight days time.
We removed the thrust engine, drained oil etc., removed the lift system, and fitted 30 degree blades to slow the fan
motor down but realised during the rebuild that the breakage was caused by a broken exhaust spring. However we
decided to leave in the steeper blades with a view of changing them later if required after a few runs. The fan
breakage had destroyed the speedo and the thrust engine instruments so a new speedo was purchased and
replacement second-hand gauges were grafted on to the remains of the original plug. Additional guarding of the lift
fan was also made.
The standard Suzuki thrust engine of 156Hp was reinstalled with new oil and modifications were made to the bag
skirt to reduce drag.
We also had time to check out thrust on our spring balance and re adjust the blade pitch as the engine was only
pulling 8,000 rpm. We let it go to 10,000 rpm. Peak power is possibly 11 to 12,000, but as with the lift, at this stage
reliability was more important than performance.
We drove up to Loch Ken which is near Castle Douglas on the west side of Scotland. Our hire van was in convoy with
Les Bran and Colin Hales towing the craft, led by Wayne Ravenhall in his own van. The weather was mild and very
wet at times.
The venue, a leisure activity centre, is centrally placed on the Loch, which being of glacial origin, is eight miles long
and half a mile wide with wooded slopes down almost to the water’s edge. Fortunately at this time of year the
activity use has tailed off and we had the exclusive use of about four kilometres of its length.
We unloaded the craft in a fine mist with clouds sliding down the hills opposite but by the time the craft had been
checked over and test driver Rupert were ready, the mist had partially lifted and he went for a spin this time within
viewing distance so we were able to observe the trim of the craft and the skirt behaviour.
In the meantime boats overflowing with camera crew were positioning themselves along the lake and with some
reluctance on their part, were persuaded not to thrash backwards and forwards creating waves across what was a
nice smooth surface.
That done and with a final check to the craft, Guy went out to familiarise himself with the hovercraft and the course.
As previously mentioned the craft was fitted with a GPS tracking device which can be used to track location, speed
and height. Guy did various reconnoitre runs at speeds of thirty to fifty mph. The craft travelled fairly flat with the
front skirt having two to three inches of clearance, so some extra frontal weight was added which initially caused a
plough-in tendency when the elevator wasn’t being used, although as speed increased this wasn’t necessary.
As he gained experience his speed increased and his last three two-way runs averaged out at 49, 56, and 75.21 mph.
On his final outward run he averaged 79.18 Mph, but before his return run the wind suddenly spun around leaving
all the moored boats facing in the opposite direction; which possibly had a bearing on him becoming airborne
towards the end of the inward run. At the time, as he started lifting he was travelling at 76.51 mph, and he lifted
three metres into the air.
Although damage was done to the hull from the impact of the craft hitting the water,
the motors were restarted and in spite of the steering cable being broken away from the rudders, a more
experienced operative could have flown the craft back. As it was, Guy recovered from what for him was a fairly
gentle crash, and re-started the lift and stayed with the craft as it was towed back. The lads quickly patched the hull
up and Guy went out for a further play, but as it was getting late in the day and the weather had reverted back to a
steady rain, a decision to end further filming was based on the weather forecast for the following day; and I
suspect the dramatic end to Guy’s run meant that from a filming point of view the show was over! In fairness to
Guy, who was game for further runs, I think the correct decision was made.
In conclusion although we did not beat Bob Windt’s speed of 85.4 mph in an open category craft, we did lay down a
marker and establish a verified speed over the two way kilometre run of 75.2 mph for an F1 craft as defined by the
WHF.
Given the opportunities again I am confident that by us or others this speed can be improved upon.
And for that opportunity Rupert and I would like to thank North One Television and all the others who helped make
it possible.
This craft will be at the next Hovershow in 2015!!
OBITURARY
David Wise, one of the pioneers of the hovercraft industry, died peacefully in Canterbury Hospice, Kent, on
19th November 2014 after a short illness caused by cancer.
David started his career as a Merchant Navy cadet with Shell Tankers. He served as an officer for a few years
before leaving the sea and securing a job at Vickers in the Flight Test Technical Department. David became
a flight test observer on the Vickers Vanguard before moving to the BAC 1-11 project. (In late 1963 one BAC
1-11 was lost during stalling trials. It crashed after getting into a ‘deep stall’ situation, killing all on board.
David had been flying on that aircraft the previous week, but luckily for him he was on a week’s leave when
the accident happened.)
By 1965 the BAC 1-11 programme was coming to an end and the future of further commercial aircraft being
designed and built in the UK, apart from Concord (later Concorde) in collaboration with the French, was
looking highly unlikely. At the same time David was aware that a new and exciting amphibious craft, called
a ‘hovercraft’, was being developed by both Vickers and Saunders-Roe. He thought his marine and aviation
experience would lend itself to this new form of transport and decided this was an opportunity for a career
change. David joined Hoverlloyd, the first company to order two giant 165 ton SR.N4s for cross-Channel
operations in the second set of pilots taken on early in 1966.
He trained on the SR.N6 for the early crossChannel and pleasure trip services from
Ramsgate Harbour, before being based at
Cowes to represent Hoverlloyd’s interest in
the building of their first SR.N4. When the
craft arrived at Pegwell Bay he was one of
the first three captains to take command.
He was in command of ‘Swift’ when the
craft lost its skirt in a gale off the French
coast in November 1971 and had to be
beached at Sangatte. It was the only time an
SR.N4’s life rafts were ever launched in an
emergency.
David became Hoverlloyd’s Operations
Director in 1972 and, following the merger
with Seaspeed, was highly regarded by both
ex- Hoverlloyd and ex-Seaspeed personnel
alike. He stayed with Hoverspeed until his
retirement in 1991 and became Patron of
the Hoverlloyd Reunion Association.
He leaves a wife Lilian, 2 sons, Andrew and
Stephen, their wives and 3 grandchildren.
By Robin Paine
NB: It was David who helped us secure SRN4 Swift in 1994, well and truly establishing us on the Daedalus Site
Site News.
Contractors Mitie are completing the eastern hangers alongside the museum with 20 men contracted over three
months and are scheduled to start on the museum front world war one J Class hanger in January. The buildings are
being made safe for the next four years, and will include the hanger doors made functional. The sea plane square
slipway gates have had replacement wheels.
The Hovercraft Museum supported by Gosport Borough Council, have been talking to the Queens Harbour Master
and Southampton Port Authority to get the slipway designated a temporary hoverport by the Maritime CoastGuard
Agency. Initially it will be a few hours a week and help with pilot training in the industry, control of Jet Ski activity
and Hovershow use.
The museum is temporarily closed to visitors whilst refurbishment commences. We welcome John Harnott (Ex –
IHTU) who is working away in the library archives.
As can be seen in the photograph above, taken by Britten Norman, many buildings have been scrapped and cleared.
On Saturday, January 17th 2015, from 11.30, at the Museum, Warwick Jacobs will be giving a talk on 50 years of
hovercraft activity in the USA. This is open to all members, and guests, for a coffee morning. The new entrance is at
the Manor Way / Chark Lane traffic lights, next to the new CEMAST college.
From the Archives – CC1 airlifted into Bembridge Harbour – 1961.