Hovercraft: United Hover

It feels like flying, come to think of it, it is flying, but not like it is flying, but like any flying you've ever done before, I'm talking about riding in the United Humber's six-passenger hoverbus. Soon to be part of the first regularly scheduled air cushion transportation service in the United States. We took an unscheduled flight, the United Humber is still testing procedures and finishing up training for operation, but the company allowed a KYUK news crew aboard for a test run. One thing we all agreed on, it was fun. Inside, the cabin is warm and roomy, wider than that of a single engine plane, but the pilot station looks mighty familiar to an air passenger. There's a compass in front of the windshield and rows of

switches and gauges in front of and alongside the seat. This vehicle even has a radar scope for night operation and the controls for operating the craft are similar. Our pilot Bruce Nurbie explained. Can you explain what you have here for us? First of all, we got the engine RPMs accelerator here, which gives us our thrust and also at the same time, our propulsion. And then down below here on my feet are the rudders, which control our steering. And those are real important in this craft. Then we got on the side here with my left right hand is the elevator control, which controls our pitch. And it can level us out a lot too. Then we also have another sort of a fourth control here is a balla system pump a water from the pole from forward to aft or the opposite. And you have a wind speed indicator to give your speed. Yeah, that's true. It's not real accurate unless we get the right wind direction and the air speed before we go because that can come safe for more air speed or less. Just like

in an airplane. Yeah. And you said to break this thing, basically you have to spin it around and put your thrust in the opposite direction. How short of the distance can you stop doing that? Well, I'd say it depends on our speed and how much room you have to play with. Our shortest was probably near 50 feet or less. It's really hard to say right now because we really haven't measured it or anything. One major difference in this craft, the pilot flies from the right seat. Take off felt like taking an elevator up about a foot. Soon we are cruising along at an air speed of about 30 miles an hour. It'll go faster but safety is the greater concern. At that speed, it's about 12 minutes to naposciac. The fun part wasn't like an airplane. At least I've never flown backwards or even sideways until today. Hover bus can also spin in a circle which is handy when parking. But the purpose of the project isn't merely having fun. Hover buses

paired with a much larger freight carrying hover barge in a $1.4 million department of transportation study. Will the hover bus be feasible in terms of capability and feasible economically for passenger transport in the Bethel area? To answer that question, we asked program manager Richard Long Acres some questions about how the craft will be used. You have plans for when you're going to begin your scheduled runs? Yeah. You service with a so-called many bus or the AV Tiger should be within the next 10 days to weeks. We're doing route-proofing now as we call it, making runs to all the villages, checking ice conditions and the best routes and the fastest ways to get in and out. It'll be on the outer of two weeks. You don't always have to fall right under river. I noticed we had our test run one across us a little over here and that sort of thing. That's of course one of the big advantages of a craft like this that we're not restricted to either the channel in the summertime or the

river in the wintertime and actually we'll cut quite a few miles off to run stalling the close by villages. That's real good. I understand you're wanting to start first off with just the Poske Active Hockey Acres. That's the way it looks at the moment. We took about a half a day trying to get up river to a Quizless one the day before yesterday and their rubber lice is just too rough so we passed the state if we could substitute Oscarville for the upper upper run until the ice wind and the snow roads it down a bit more. Do you have projected fares for people who make these runs? We've not cleared them exactly but they'll be very competitive with the other transportation and particularly the aircraft runs to the villages. I understand you've also been practicing some safety procedures but the vehicle basically is a safe one if it runs into something the air skirt around it will have it basically bouncing off. Is that right? It's extremely safe. The large airbags are tough, they're

resilient, they take some very heavy blows as craft similar to this and the far east have demonstrated and yes it's virtually impossible. I don't think there's been a craft of this type ever over turn and this one has never even closed to it and I believe it's impossible to turn it over and if the engine quits you just set down on the two skids underneath and slide on the ice a little wave. It's like an oversized toboggan and if it did stop the air lift system decays rather slowly so the descent is not very abrupt and of course the basic hull of the craft is like an aluminum boat anyway with the runners under it. There's the three systems, the buoyancy bag, two runners, and the faces of the aluminum boat that's photographed around it. How is the project looking so far as far as economic feasibility? Does it look like it's going to

be able to continue over a long-term competitive with the air taxes? We hope so but I'd be premature in trying to answer that right at the moment until we get more operating time under our belt. So far the fuel consumption maintenance of the craft is very close to what we projected but as far as the overall economic feasibility we'll have to get further into it before we can say anything intelligent about that. That's a major part of this project who discover whether it will be economically feasible to do this. That's the objective yes and now we have evaluated of course by the state people who we report to as well as the urban mass transit authority folks who have a partial funding in this from the federal government in Washington. Thank you again. The most important testing of the hover bus will be that done while it is operating as a schedule transportation service. Some of the crafts advantages are at safety features and its ability to travel when weather keeps aircraft on the ground.

It's greatest disadvantage maybe in the cost of operation and Bethel will be able to weigh these factors first hand. This is at Andrews reporting for KYuk News.