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>
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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