On this day in 1955 Christopher Cockerall was granted the patent for IMPROVEMENTS IN OR RELATING TO VEHICLES FOR TRAVELING OVER LAND AND/OR WATER. Patent No. GB 854,211.
This invention relates to vehicles for traveling over land and/or water and may be applied to ships or aircraft or land-going vehicles or to vehicles which represent a combination thereof.
This invention in on respect consists in a vehicle which comprises means for causing a fluid to issue from the lower part of the vehicle in such a way as to result in the formation and maintenance of at least one curtain of moving fluid which travels across the gap that in operation exists between the surace over which the vehicle is to hover or travel and the structure and surface, encloses a space into which the said fluid, or a gas other than said fluid, flows so as to result in the formation of a pressurized cushion or cushions by which the vehicle is wholly or partly supported, the pressure of the cushion causing, and in its turn being contained due to, a change of direction of the moving fluid which results in a curvature of the curtain, and in which the means for forming the curtain are such that in cruising conditions the thrust due to the stream of fluid is finally leaving the vehicle in substantially less than the weight of the vehicle when loaded.
This invention in another aspect consists in a vehicle which comprises means of causing at least one stream of fluid to issue from the lower part of the vehicle to form at least one curtain of moving fluid which travels across the gap that in operation exists between the surface over which the vehicle is to hover or travel and the structure oft he vehicle and, together with said structure and surface encloses a space into which the said fluid, or a gas other than the said fluid, flows so as to result in the formation of a pressurized cushion or cushions by which the vehicle is wholly or partly supported, the pressure of the cushion causing, and in its turn being contained due to, a change of direction of the moving fluid which results in a curvature of the curtain, the plan area enclosed by the said stream of fluid, the said surface and the structure of the vehicle being a number of times larger than the cross-sectional area of the stream of fluid, an in which the means for forming the curtain are such that in the cruising conditions the thrust due to the stream of fluid finally leaving the vehicle is substantially less than the weight of the vehicle when loaded.
