Re: GEV capabilities

On Mon, 16 Nov 1998 Pmj6@aol.com wrote:
> In a message dated 11/16/1998 11:26:48 AM Central Standard Time,
> ScottSaylo@AOL.COM writes:
> >  any other vehicle, except it slides instead of rturning turtle. The
fans
> >  should be able to crab it up the hill at a reduced movement rate.
> The reason why hovercraft are so bad at climbing hills (except through
> momentum) is that as soon as you start moving up a incline, a
component of
> your lift thrust vector suddenly begins to push you down hill,
counteracting
> your propulsion fans.

if the hull stays parallel to the ground, then yes. however, if it stays
horizontal, then the tank will climb the hill as thrust will escape on
the
downhill side. of course, your power consumption will skyrocket.

>  To overcome that you'd have to install almost enough
> thrust to make the whole thing fly, making it, in effect, a VTOL.

not quite; it still has the advantage of the ground effect, which makes
flight far easier than in the free-flight regime.

Tom