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Originally Posted by Bicycle Bob
How do hovercraft rate on ton-mile/gallon (or other units) compared with boats, hydrofoils, cars, ground-effect fliers, aircraft, and helicopters?
Agreed that streamlining always helps, but sometimes the major losses are elsewhere.
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If we put it in context of fair weather using Diesel power in lieu of earlier generation of gas turbines on larger commercial craft as compared to high speed catamaran ferries I'm guessing that it's similar to smaller personal craft 4-strokes as compared to mono-hull boats.
That is hovercraft use 1/4 to 1/2 of the fuel as their water displacement cousins boats/ships.
However, total operating costs must include skirt maintenance and replacement as similar to comparing sail boats to gas guzzling boats.
On the flip side, the hovercraft only need a beach or sloping concrete apron/boat launch in lieu of a port with a dock which is a considerable infrastructure cost.
As far as safety, there have been less than a dozen deaths on commercial hovercraft in the past 40 years, all because of poor weather or botched rescue efforts that made things worse.
Recreational hovercraft have suffered two fatalities, all in the past decade and none before that (
that I know of). One was a freak accident on a British racing circuit when an operator was thrown from his craft and landed in between his craft and another that had broken down, a third craft hit the first craft and squished the poor guy.
In another instance a gentleman built a craft of his own design and neglected any common sense safety features such as a fan guard, it didn't end well.
One on incident on an LCAC whose large thrust propellers were also unguarded, a sailor that ventured to close to the inlet was sucked into the propeller. They now have a net draping over the ducted propeller openings.
Overall, as far as vehicles go hovercraft have the best safety record over anything else land, sea or air. And their fuel consumption is low when factoring in speed. Obviously physics rules, it's more fuel efficient to go slow typically - aerodynamics you know.
https://www.explainthatstuff.com/hovercraft.html
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Where boats are slowed by hulls that drag deep in the water, hovercraft ride fully clear, which means they use less fuel and can reach blistering speeds of up to 145kph (90mph).
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http://www.hovercruiser.org.uk/about...ft-v-boats.pdf
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Hovercraft are much more fuel efficient than a boat - they typically consume 1/2 to 1/4 of the fuel of a comparable sized boat at the same speed.
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There are exceptions to every rule, two strokes and gas turbines are rather thirsty compared to 4-strokes and Diesels.
Weight is the enemy of the hovercraft, that's why less fuel efficient power plants have been used before. How much does the extra fuel weigh, what's the price of gas today?
And then stuff happens that no one seems to be able to explain.
Giant Military Hovercraft Lands on Crowded Beach Because Russia