Sports car-inspired design aims to bring hovercraft into the 21st century

I fail to see how an electromotive system will be more efficient than just having the engine turning the properly sized blowers directly.

The propulsion system doesn't look efficient at all.

Useless unless on water as the dirt spray will just come up and into the cockpit and onto anyone standing within 30-50 or so feet!!

And try to move one of these on water without the air lift and likely ruin it as the drag is so high.

I built a fairly good one with a very experienced hovercrafter/builder and was surprised how useless they were except the few places where they shine like swamps, shallow water, etc little else can go.

What we really need are ground effect trains and Wing In Ground Effect/WIGE/WIG flying boats.

Sounds about as likely as this other pie-in-the-sky concept.

http://news.discovery.com/autos/vw-hovercraft-brings-us-one-step-closer-to-the-jetsons-110615.html

I suspect the two boys are being a little naive. There are any number of small personal hovercraft and In-Ground-Effect craft available, most already proven and in operation. Still, good luck to them, specially if they can do it for $20k!

not sure where the hate is coming from.

A: it has a cushion. This keeps spray and dirt from coming up into the cockpit. Proven tech, been done for a LONG time. LCAC's give a bit of spray, but then they're hundreds of tons and need a LOT of air inflating their cushion. . . for small ones, not so much.

B: a hybrid means the electric motors will run at need. It looks (from sketches and pics) like the main hover-prop is powered by the motor and the maneuvering props are run by electrics. It looks like a nice idea.

I've seen them on grass, pavement, dry lake beds (sand), etc. and they go well. Their main problem is maneuverability - which this is trying to address. . .

First insurmountable problem... sudden stops. Every car needs to be able to stop in a hurry. Turning is an issue too.

@warren52nz Where's the brake pedal on my boat then?

This could work but not with any electrics which require at least 4 car size battery's for twin 28 Lb electric motors (e-Tec) Plus the generator of equal or more hp output than the motors! Electrics on flying things are a non starter for any useful range because of the weight penalty. If it was all gas motors it might work with very highly loaded props, but like all hovercraft the prop noise will make it unacceptable near populated areas. It should be outlawed to promote any untried prop designed craft as "Quieter" when they have offered no reason for that attribute. When the noise problem is solved Hovercraft will become popular and sales will drive innovative designs.

Make it look like a Star Wars landspeeder and they'll have a bunch of orders.

Looks good, great idea, the only change I would make is to have a vertical fan in the back. Make it variable pitch so it could increase both forward speed and, reverse thrust for slowing down faster.

re; warren52nz

Deflate the cushion. screeeeech.

christopher - August 1, 2012 @ 07:31 pm PDT

said @warren52nz "Where's the brake pedal on my boat then?.."

Very good point Christopher.

Just use the same approach as on the boat - throw out the anchor!

nice video and design. however, none of the tech. is new and therefore not patent material. as with any car or boat model it can be copyrighted though. seriously, ducted fans and thrust vectoring have been around for so long a patent application is laughable. i think they got most of their ideas from RC craft and R. Q. Riley designs. it's only the exterior design that is unique. but nice job on that. it seems a lot of new high-end marine performance designs are trying to incorporate sports car styling and such. very bond-ish! nice, i think. :)

At the price a good investment for the first generation they will hold their first issue status in the future and appreciate in value. With the improvements to follow this looks like a foundational car company for the 21st century. Ground floor opportunities are rare and this tech will take in the rebuilt and redesigned cities of this century. Do you see how quickly the cities of the world have adopted latest tech and transformed their appearance and complexity overnight? This one looks like a winner

I smell a scam. Just watch the video. If these guys are engineers trying to build a better hovercraft, the terrible editing quality of their video suggest poor technical skills, yet the infomercial style sales pitch was pretty good. Never trust a good sales man that lacks technical skills, unless you want to get conned.

Great innovation for something so old and boring. I have to disagree with "AnOld BlackMarble" I think if the video were too flashy I would be more skeptical. Their expertise is not in video editing and cinematography its in engineering. Keep up the work hope to see one soon.

How can it be 'environmentally friendly' when the battery charger/generator still runs on gasoline and spews toxic fumes and still needs water polluting lubricating oil to run?

One gallon of motor oil can contaminate one MILLION gallons of water.

And chemical batteries? They're toxic, from manufacturing down to the recycling processes which takes a lot more energy for them to be produced in the first place and the ones fits this particular application can explode.

With this kind of hybrid you get the the ineffiency and weight penalty of an infernal combustion engine PLUS the low energy density storage and chemical ineffiency of batteries. Great. Unfortunately these people haven't done any thorough research using Google so I wouldn't give them serious thoughts of ever succeeding.

Terrific proposal !! I admire your efforts, You are

however slightly behind Moller progress but the

hovercraft is undoubtably coming. Call it:

The Wheeless Automobile. I prefer the

SEV format with enough thrust and lifting

surfaces, to actually fly out of ground effect.

At speed, it may be able to hold a 3D lane,

and most likely, that regulatory infrastructure

would be available to military and LE only at first.

I envision a 400K price tag when/if such could

be offered to the public.

@David, The noise could be countered using destructive wave technology

Thanks for the article, Darren! I really appreciate you taking the time to understand our design and share it with the web. And thanks to everyone for your comments and feedback (positive and negative). The Mercier-Jones hovercraft is going to be a reality, and we are hoping to make it available to everyone as soon as next summer. As builds and testing progress, you will see how incredible this vehicle really is. Its going to be awesome!

Please keep me in informed of progress, are you looking for investors?

Hi Martin Brook,

We are still looking for investors. Please e-mail me at info@mercier-jones.com and visit mercier-jones.com for more information.

-Michael Mercier

CEO and Co-founder, Mercier-Jones