Word: hovercraft
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...Life for Hovercraft Roaring along on a cushion of air and traveling with equal facility over land, ice or water, large and expensive Hovercraft have proved successful as ferries across the English Channel, cargo carriers in the Arctic, and patrol vehicles on Vietnamese rivers. In the past few years, Canadian and U.S. companies have also begun manufacturing smaller air-cushion vehicles and have sold several hundred to private buyers at prices between $3,500 and $4,000. Now a Canadian firm has raised the specter of a noisy Hovercraft in every garage. Ottawa's MHV Ltd. will soon begin...
...price should include driving lessons: piloting a Hovercraft is almost as tricky as flying a plane. Steering is controlled by a wheel (connected to air rudders) and the direction in which the driver's body leans, but Spectra tends to drift out disconcertingly on turns. "The first feeling you get on our craft," MHV's President Geoff Voyce cheerfully concedes, "is one of sheer panic...
...stopped quickly in water. But he expects to have the troubles ironed out in time to manufacture 10,000 Spectras in 1970 and claims already to have orders for 8,000. "People literally get freaked out by the Spectra," he says, and prophesies that one day "the Hovercraft will do away with the wheel...
Proposals for Chicago's badly needed third jetport include a floating airport constructed of aluminum modules and reached by helibus and Hovercraft. Architect Stanley Tigerman estimates it would cost a relatively modest $500 million. Closer to approval, however, is a $1 billion dike-protected jetport 35 ft. to 55 ft. below the water level of Lake Michigan and connected to the Loop by six miles of causeway, tunnel and bridge. Says Chicago's Aviation Commissioner William Downes Jr.: "The main objection comes from the save-our-lakefront fraternity who don't realize that an airport six miles...
...Hovercraft, after all, made the 26-mile crossing in just 35 minutes, nearly an hour less than the ferry's timetable...