Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!att!cbnews!military From: amdcad!well!nagle@lll-crg.llnl.gov (John Nagle) Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: Re: Superheavy tanks Message-ID: <9871@cbnews.ATT.COM> Date: 3 Oct 89 13:06:59 GMT References: <27581@amdcad.AMD.COM> Sender: military@cbnews.ATT.COM Lines: 16 Approved: military@att.att.com From: amdcad!well!nagle@lll-crg.llnl.gov (John Nagle) Military hovercraft have been proposed at various times, usually as naval vessels. But have any ever been built? Hovercraft were discussed as part of the Fast Deployment Logistics Force (a Carter-era idea) but not much came of it, apparently. Hovercraft have the interesting property that the bigger they are, the less power per unit area they take to lift. This reflects the fact that air loss is proportional to the perimeter of the craft. Thus, quite large hovercraft are feasible, and can be seen ferrying cars between England and France. John Nagle