The Bertelsen Aeromobile-Aeroduct system was something I came across a few years ago when I picked up a second-hand copy of “Jane's Surface Skimmers, 1986”.
The concept is the brainchild of Dr.William R. Bertelsen, a general practitioner who started building hovercraft when he found that he had trouble travelling to his patients in bad weather.
The Aeromobile-Aeroduct system (U.S. Patent 3,845,716 Nov.1974) is suggested as a mass and personal transport system. It is particularly suited to countries that have not yet invested in extensive rail or road networks.
Many of the developing regions of world are likely to transition directly from a First Wave to a Third Wave civilization, an industrialized phase having had very little effect on their infrastructure.
Away from major supply arteries and urban centres, road and rail systems are likely to be poor or non-existent.
With a shift in emphasis from physical commuting to remote communication, there may be little impetus to expand road and rail networks.
Many communities may never have a rail-link and only be served by unpaved or poor roads.
Such regions and communities would benefit from a Bertelsen aeroduct network.
Like many good ideas, Bertelsen’s is very simple. Semi-cylindrical hoverways or “aeroducts” are used by hovercraft (aka “aeromobiles”) for guidance and to eliminate yawing tendencies.
Aeromobiles can use these guideways to centrifugate into banked turns, rather like a bobsleigh, and this eliminates side forces on passengers or loads.
To move up and down steep gradients, the aeroduct is constructed as a series of steps. Hovercraft can easily move up or down these without needing any additional lift.
The aeromobiles will provide a soft, shock-less, self-dampened ride and be capable of high speeds and moving heavy loads. Use of the guideways also allows the system to be easily automated.
Various power systems can be used for the hovercraft. Betelsen's designs run on normal petrol, although hydrogen and hybrid-biodiesel electric systems are possible. The use of the guideway offers the potential of vehicles taking power directly from overhead cables, as many conventional trains and trolley buses do.
An important consideration of this concept is that the aeroducts would be much cheaper and simpler to construct and maintain than conventional road or rail systems. Since aeromobiles have a very low ground pressure, the aeroduct can have a surface of grass or lightly paved earth. Ploughed, ice-coated snow is another possibility and for areas where the track must be above ground-level, it can be constructed of a concrete or sheet metal trough or tube. To cross large bodies of water, the aeromobile seldom needs a bridge, just a line of buoys for the automated guidance system and ramps or steps to allow the craft to move onto and off the water. When a bridge is needed, a lightweight tube has inherent built in support and protects the vehicle from abnormal winds or wave conditions along the waterway.
Aeroducts can be constructed alongside or above existing transport networks: in fact an aeroduct alongside a road might also double as a drainage ditch or storm drain. The aeromobile does not care if its track is flooded or icy, and would not be paralysed by “leaves on the track” as British rail systems seem to be each autumn.
Some trackways might also be used for fish farming, grazing or cultivation of certain crops.
Aeromobiles are not limited to their guideways. They can also travel across bodies of water, conventional roads or flat terrain if necessary. A staging area or freight-handling area could simply be a large grassy field.
An interesting innovation of Betelsen’s is that his designs have a gimbal-mounted fan at each end of the vehicle that can be used for either lift or thrust. When operating outside an aeroduct this feature can compensate for side winds, allow fine maneuvering and slow descent down steep gradients.
Betelsen sees his system as meeting all a society's transport needs: personal and public transport, emergency services, freight, mail-delivery and refuse-collection to name but a few applications.
Large “trains” of hover trailers moved by aeromobile “tractors” are possible.
When I was describing the Aeromobile-Aeroduct concept to a friend a while back, India had just become the victim of disastrous floods. Ed observed that if a country such as India had opted for Betelsen's system, not only would it have had a very effective transport system, but as a benefit of this would have had a large fleet of hovercraft suitable for disaster relief during floods. Hovercraft can, of course travel across many types of terrain impassible to other vehicles.
In an idle moment, I sketched a design for a small, fast, aeromobile “car”, suitable for transporting a doctor or police in rural areas.
This vehicle had a retractable power “pick-up” for use with overhead power cables and was shaped so that much of the lift was provided aerodynamically. Since the car might travel to villages that did have a frequent transport service, at the rear of the vehicle was a vegetation cutter to prevent the aeroduct becoming too overgrown.
Ultrasonic sirens were also fitted to prevent collisions with animals that strayed onto the track.
By the Author of the Scrapboard : | |
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