Heavy lift air cushion amphibious vehicle

A highway transportable air cushion vehicle having an operational width greater than permitted for highway travel, and including;

• an elongated hull of rectangular configuration having a width permissible for highway travel and a flat bottom extending between flat sides and from bow to stern, sponsons coextensive with and moveable into and out of positions adjacent said sides respectively and having bottoms to continue the flat bottom of the hull, a perimeter skirt coextensive of the sponsons and bow and stern of the hull and comprised of air inflated cylinders in continuous separably abutted end to end engagement attached tangentially to marginal edges of the hull and sponson bottoms, inboard curtains extending diagonally outward from the hull and sponson bottoms and tangentially to the skirt cylinders to restrain the same, ducted fan lift means discharging vertically through the hull and from the bottom thereof and into a plenum defined by the perimeter skirt, propeller propulsion means thrusting longitudinally of the hull, and steering means operable to laterally deflect the thrust of the propulsion means.

An air cushion vehicle operable over land, water and ice separately and in combination, and including;

• an elongated hull of rectangular configuration having a flat bottom extending from side to side and from bow to stern, a perimeter skirt coextensive of the hull sides bow and stern and comprised of inflatable cylinders in continuous openly abutted end to end engagement to form at least one common chamber, a roll stabilizer divider comprised of an inflatable cylinder extending between the bow and stern cylinders of the perimeter skirt and open into one of said cylinders to be in open communication with said at least one common chamber of the perimeter skirt, ducted fan lift means discharging nominal lift pressure air into a plenum defined by the perimeter skirt and discharging high inflation pressure air into the at least one common chamber of the perimeter skirt, propeller propulsion means thrusting longitudinally of the hull, and steering means operable to laterally deflect the thrust of the propulsion means.

An air cushion vehicle operable over land, water and ice separately and in combination, and including;

• an elongated hull of rectangular configuration having a flat bottom extending from side to side and from bow to stern, a perimeter skirt coextensive of the hull sides bow and stern and comprised of inflatable cylinders in continuous abutted end to end engagement, there being a plurality of spaced runners depending from the perimeter skirt and disposed longitudinally with the direction of travel and in the form of a labyrinth seal at the air boundary of the plenum and for ground engagement, ducted fan lift means discharging nominal lift pressure air into a plenum defined by the perimeter skirt and discharging high inflation pressure air into the perimeter skirt, propeller propulsion means thrusting longitudinally of the hull, and steering means operable to laterally deflect the thrust of the propulsion means.