On May 20 the US pioneer of hovercraft Dr. William Bertelsen celebrated his 80. Birthday. We wish him all the best and hope he will add some more great ideas to the Hovercraft community. 
Just for all who are not so familiar with his achievements here a few milestones he has left us during the last 50 years ;

• Gimbal Fan System of Integrated Lift and Propulsion
• Aeromobile-Aeroduct System
• Gimbal Fan System in Hovercraft 

replacing the "Mustang" Hovercraft. 
For quite a while Ross is working on a real "Workhorse" Hovercraft to replace the "Mustang" design. This new craft has several innovations included which will provide safer crafts which will run more efficient for commercial applications. 
Just to mention a few :
A new skirt system, a new approach to the airsplitter, diesel engine as propulsion ....
A few day's  ago Ross send us the following picture 

It looks like all are getting along quite well on their craft's and also David Carambat from I-O design got his craft on test flights. This sleek high speed craft got his birthday shower in the last days. Guess he still has to "get the hang on it " or the tree stumps out of the water ... we wish him all the best on the final small adjustments and the fun of flying on a cushion of air.

David send in the following picture 

So if you cruise the Louisiana area and think you got transformed into a star wars movie - you don't need to pinch your nose - it's David on a test flight.
For more info on this craft please see the following page :  http://4wings.com.phtemp.com/crafts/Io01.html

Our most recent client wanted a bit more than the basic Alpha-I and I could not keep my mouth closed and mentioned that it might be possible to fly even a craft as small as the Alpha-I on a bag and finger skirt. Unfortunately he liked the idea and asked to get one.
Since I was not really satisfied with the overall performance of the bag skirt, and gathered info for an integrated bag and finger skirt ( since I got first stuck on a small 15" weed )- we got on the way and started to build one. I have to admit that it took us quite a while to get all the flaws out of it and only with the help of Ross McLeod - Airlift Hovercraft Australia - we got to a working solution. 
A big thanks to our client to be patient on the delivery and my wife for all the blown money ...LOL.
Since we are not that greedy we posted the info   on our pages and feel free to see if this skirt design might work for you. At least you have a head start from there and don't need to gather all the info one more. 
The following pictures were done before the final adjustment in the craft bow section were done 

Test flight's of Alpha-I with integrated bag and finger skirt - custom build for Don - SFB area - CA

While surfing for the usual info to increase the safety and performance of our crafts we tripped over a nice study : "Experimental investigation of the effects of some shroud design variables on the static thrust characteristics of a small-scale shrouded propeller submerged in a wing" you can see the file at the following location 

This message is for all cruising H/C-craft user - they finally recognize that you seldom seen species exist and most recently a few gentelman of the USHC start writing the cruising regulations for recreational Hovercraft. Don't ask me who is in charge - but just the fact that finally they get to paper is nice to know . Since they will not include current USCG regulations as well as several state  noise level limits it's again only a partial solution. From there you have to see which builder will work after them and the USCG rules - or at least you know the saved money on your crafts equipment will support  your state in form of violation tickets.
(Last choice - out run the authorities ....) nobody said  that ....

Since Deja.com is quite often down and e-groupes ( bought again) is flooding my mail box we think Yahoo Clubs  is a good alternative for a newsgroup. It's easy to set up and advertisement is on a minimum. To sign up just follow the link :  http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/hovercraftrecreational  and feel free to ask questions and get in touch with other Hovercraft interrested persons.
 

So after all that don't tell me there is nothing going on in the hovercraft community 
Have a safe Hovering and see you soon at 4wings.comwhere Dreams meet Dimensions