0 a vehicle that travels quickly just above the surface of water or land by producing a current of air under it to support it --
The feasibility studies for the new class of minehunter are planned to embrace hovercraft.
This is whether we should not try to define hovercraft in terms of the air cushion principle expressed mathematically rather than in words.
It has been apparent for years that there are many other applications of the air cushion principle than for marine hovercraft.
The trials of hovercraft for the mine countermeasures rôle are nearing completion.
The rôle of hovercraft is envisaged to be in mine countermeasure activities.
This type of hovercraft was quite rightly considered a very safe vehicle and it capsized in what might well have been freak conditions.
But it is at the moment very difficult to make a hovercraft which will carry a large number of people around cheaply and reliably.
This is considerably less than hovercraft propelled in the conventional fashion.