Using hovercraft technology for heavy transport

[Hobbes]

this 1960s film shows how heavy generators were transported by adding a hovercraft skirt under the load, to spread the weight.

[NARSES2]

Good old Pickfords    That has to be just about the tightest squeeze I've ever seen under a bridge.

[PR19_Kit]

We used grease hovercraft technology to move heavy rigs around in the Railway Technical Centre in the 70s.

Very effective but VERY messy! Kept the cleaners under contract for AGES afterwards!

[Captain Canada]

That's some interesting stuff ! Thanks for sharing. Love them coming through tunnels with inches to spare

[jcf]

In it's heyday Jane's Surface Skimmers: Hovercraft and Hydrofoils volumes had a separate section just for industrial
hover systems.
1985 was the last year of publication, in 1986 it became Jane's High-speed Marine Craft and Air Cushion Vehicles and
then in 1990 Jane's High-Speed Marine Craft, publication ceased altogether with the 1995-96 volume.

[kerick]

I actually saw a hovercraft on what looked like a car trailer being towed by a pickup truck. Painted bright red. Strange.

[The Rat]

Speaking of which, did any after-market company ever make the Land Rover hovercraft attachments? https://www.google.com/search?q=Land+Rover+hovercraft&newwindow=1&rlz=1C1CHBF_enCA910CA910&sxsrf=APwXEddiJqVUbU1BtnEJi7Tehwc56oxx3Q:1685910583634&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiQn9eruqr_AhW7tokEHSb1BkwQ_AUoAXoECAEQAw&biw=1536&bih=754&dpr=1.25

[PR19_Kit]

Vickers did the development, tacked onto their large hovercraft, but I don't think they did many of them.

[Rheged]

Speaking of which, did any after-market company ever make the Land Rover hovercraft attachments?

There was an Eagle comic cutaway some time in the late 50's or early 60's of such a machine

[zenrat]

Speaking of which, did any after-market company ever make the Land Rover hovercraft attachments?

There was an Eagle comic cutaway some time in the late 50's or early 60's of such a machine

http://funrover.com/history/5-bizarre-odd-land-rovers/

[zenrat]

I actually saw a hovercraft on what looked like a car trailer being towed by a pickup truck. Painted bright red. Strange.

Not unusual.  They are not practical for use on public roads having no brakes and vague steering (like a Commodore I used to own).  I once towed a small one (2 or 3 seater) though Melbourne to deliver it to its new owner.
My then boss once had to tow a much larger one (weighing a bit more than the towing capacity of his Landcruiser) to a secret remote location to hide it.

[Rheged]

That's the picture I was thinking of!!  Thank you Zenrat.

[rickshaw]

The Proof and Experimental range at Port Wakefield was an unusual army establishment, built on the edge of a vast mud flat area and as a consequence they had a hovercraft - to recover projectiles they had fired out to sea over the mudflats.  I was never allowed to drive it, you needed a special license for that but I occasionally got to travel in it.  It was a zippy little two seater.  We were able generally to recover most projectiles which we fired.

[Nick]

I had a go at driving a hovercraft at Scout camp many years ago. Three small machines in use and they had a whole field to themselves. Great fun but impossible to steer in any meaningful direction 

I can't recall whose biography it was but I read a great account of the British Army taking hovercraft to Borneo to ride up the river rapids into undiscovered country. Very exciting.

[Rheged]

I had a go at driving a hovercraft at Scout camp many years ago. Three small machines in use and they had a whole field to themselves. Great fun but impossible to steer in any meaningful direction 

I can't recall whose biography it was but I read a great account of the British Army taking hovercraft to Borneo to ride up the river rapids into undiscovered country. Very exciting.

I can vaguely remember the Borneo event, couldn't find it immediately but I did find this:  2000 miles up the Amazon    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkaJ4ELOYzQ.


  Further research  did identify this:-  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3gVkQQ36I4