RE: [DSII] Sinking hover tanks

A hydrofoil would work in conjunction with an air cushion, but would
only be useful at higher speeds to generate sufficient lift.  A
hydrofoil is essentially wing that is submerged in the water (thus the
requirement for it to be retractable, otherwise you will be plowing dirt
the rest of the time).	Hydrofoils (airfoils) generate lift partially
based on speed of the material over and under the foil to generate a
density differential that appears to be "lift".  The faster you go, in
general the more "lift" you get.  The downside to hydrofoils is that
they have to be immersed in the water and at relatively high speed to be
effective (i.e. hydrofoil ships don't rise out of the water until they
reach speeds of 40+ knots) so if a hover tank was dependent on
hydrofoils to provide additional lift to keep it out of the water, as
soon as it slowed down, it would sink into the water. 



--Binhan

________________________________

From: owner-gzg-l@lists.CSUA.Berkeley.EDU
[mailto:owner-gzg-l@lists.CSUA.Berkeley.EDU] On Behalf Of Roger Books
Sent: Wednesday, May 25, 2005 1:15 PM
To: gzg-l@csua.berkeley.edu
Subject: Re: [DSII] Sinking hover tanks



So unless you have some sort of hybrid hovercraft/hydrofoil your tank is

going to sink even if moving at a high rate of speed.  The hydrofoil 
mechanism won't work through a highly compressed and contained
column of air.

For some reason that doesn't "feel" right.  Too bad I don't have time to
build a radio controlled hovercraft.

Roger Books