HOVERCRAFT
Hovercraft contolled by a GPS system. If
you're not familiar with the GPS system, GPS is the acronym for the
Global Positioning Satellite, which is an instrument of location
identity commonly used by sea-going craft, increasingly being
installed in autos, and even now easily purchased as a hand-held unit.
A hovercraft is a vehicle which rides on a cushion of air and this
technology has been around since at least the 1950's. There are many
companies that manufacture hovercraft but none of them, to my knowledge,
are capable of lifting too far off the ground. It's not a far stretch,
though, to think that in the near future this technology will be developed
or is, rather, easily capable of being developed and could one day
become the chief means of travel, replacing our current
resource-gobbling, animal-killing, unsafe, environment-polluting,
money-leeching automobiles.
Traveling in hovercraft would eliminate the need for any roads and
virtually all infrastructure related to the support and conveyance
of vehicles. Billions of dollars normally spent on routine
construction and maintenance of roads would be wisely put to use in
other areas of development for the benefit of humankind (right?).
The GPS has the potential to interface with an onboard computer and
control the guidance system of a vehicle, thereby eliminating the
need for manual control by a driver. The driver would only have to
enter in the destination to the onboard computer and virtually
everything else related to the operation of the vehicle would be
handled automatically. The GPS could beam down the
exact position of the vehicle and guide it along a predesignated
"track" that could be mapped out for unimpeded passage through a
skylane. Future roads will be no more than airspace kept free and
clear of any obstacles. Checking at a rate of perhaps 30 times a
second, the GPS would relay information to give the guidance system
lightning-fast reaction time in either evasive maneuvering,
acceleration/deceleration, or stopping time. As an adjunct to the
GPS, there would be sensors on each vehicle to maintain safe and
adequate distances between them. This is technology currently being
studied and applied with the development of "smart" roads and cars.
There are a few scenes in Bruce Willis' movie, "The Fifth Element",
where they show the streets of New York; only the streets aren't really
streets at all but lines of vehicles flying at various levels between
skyscrapers. I imagine a scene akin to this except that the vehicles
wouldn't be driven or controlled by someone in the car but rather by
this combination of onboard computer and satellite locating device. Just
how does something that heavy hover above the ground? At present,
hovercraft acheive that by riding on a cushion of air.
This doesn't lift the vehicle very far at all - mere inches. My thought
is that there may be a way to utilize the magnetic field of the Earth
itself that would enable a vehicle to counteract the
gravitational force that keeps it on the ground. I'm not informed on the
status of the current research in these areas of study. That doesn't mean
there aren't viable answers to such questions, only that I haven't done all
the research of the hard science and technology which might be
considered in implementing such a system. This is an ongoing project
so when I find some pertinent information regarding these revolutionary
concepts, I'll add them as I find them. Feel free to send me information you
think might be relevant. Share your ideas so we can begin to bring this about,
if not in our lifetimes, perhaps in our future generations.
I read a book entitled, "Dweller on Two Planets", in which the author describes
his experiences in Atlantis, among other places, and describes in some detail
the flying craft the Atlanteans possessed called "vailx". These were powered by
an anti-gravitational device, a technology not yet known in our time. The larger
of these craft were capable of trans-oceanic flight and were quite luxurious and
roomy. In the book he describes a party that he and his young fellow travelers
have while crossing the Atlantic Ocean in this particularly large craft made for
long distance traveling. I have spoken with others who have heard and read about
the technology of anti-gravity flight. There are some who believe this technology
will soon be removed from the realms of science fiction and be proven to be a
viable method of propulsion.
Here's a webpage with lots of links to other hovercraft sites. It's
just called
Links Around The World.
This is one called The
Hovercraft Homepage with some of the craft shown built by the
author of the website.
I found one where someone actually had the idea of putting the GPS
locator on a hovercraft. He uses it to track the speed of the
hovercraft. Not exactly what I had in mind but a step in the right
direction, eh? This page is entitled
The GPS Project.
One of the early pioneers in hovercraft design and production is
Dr. William Bertelsen. His website is called
Aeromobile Inc. and has
lots of info on hovercraft history, its future, and current research
being carried out by their company.
This website is devoted to the space applications of the GPS and you
might want to check it out to see what's possible using this
technology. Go to the
Spaceborne
GPS Information Site.
This is an ideal starting place if you really want to dig into this
hovercraft thing. This is the
Webring for Hovercraft and has over 100 links to websites
devoted to hovercraft. Surf's Up!
If you'd like to know more about the GPS system, here's a site with a
tutorial using 'Shockwave' graphics to explain it in understandable
terms. Check out
Trimble Navigation.
©2000 by Jaris Dreaming
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