The Hovercraft Naming Ceremony
The Hovercraft
Transporters Transporter HT001
Transporter HT002
Guest Book
Morecambe RNLI Station
Registered charity
number 209603
The Hovercraft Transporter
HT002
As with HT001 the chassis a Iveco turbo diesel fitted with two tone horns with a selection of tones, loudspeaker system, a VHF radio telephone which can be diverted though the loud speaker, a rear facing TV camera with a screen in the cab, this is switched on automatically when reverse is selected or it can be activated by the driver. The unit is also fitted with a winch and an high volume low pressure air compressor for inflating the hovercraft sponsons, there is also plenty of locker space the equipment detailed above is common to HT001 transporter. There is a petrol driven hydraulic pump fitted under the chassis for emergence if the main pump which is powered by the truck engine fails. The battery powered hydraulic backup unit which is fitted on HT001 has been omitted on HT002.
This unit uses a completely different method to unload the hovercraft. On operating a single button two hydraulic stabilizing jacks (Fig 1) under the rear of the truck are extended, the flatbed and hovercraft are slid backwards off the chassis by a system of steal cables (Fig 2). On reaching reaching the point of balance the platform and hovercraft tip under their own weight and the rear of the platform, which has two rollers on it come in contact with the ground the tipping operation is stabilized by two extra steel ropes fixed to the front of the platform (Fig 3). The winch continues to pull the flatbed off the chassis until the front of the platform comes off the back of the truck, the weight is then taken by wire ropes which were used to stabilize the tipping operation and it is gently lowered the ground (Fig 4). The whole operation takes approximately a quarter of the time of HT001 and is all done automatically.
For recovery a separate winch is used to pull the hovercraft onto platform and with the press of a button the whole lot is loaded back on the transporter
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Fig 1
Fig 2
(Fig 3)
Fig 4
