Halo Interceptor Multi-Functional Vehicle w/Attachments

The Halo Intersceptor is a concept vehicular hub, which begins as a sports car. With attachments, the Halo can be converted to a helicopter, a catamaran speedboat, or a jet aircraft. Conceivably a submarine attachment could be designed as easily as the cat speedboat or jet flyer.

Each attachment must be carefully maintained and stored until needed. Of course the attachments could be stored in different locations of maximum anticipated need. Attachments could even be shipped by boat or rail to the next location of use -- or you could have multiple attachments ready at several locations if you have the budget for it.
H/T Brian Wang

Al Fin operatives prefer a single vehicle which is self-modifiable without attachments, to serve multiple functions. But it is easy to imagine larger organisations such as the US military incorporating a HumVee hubbed multi-functional vehicle that can act as either helicopter or hovercraft, besides its basic land function.

Kiwi Hoverwing Invention Takes You Higher

Al Fin has discussed the need to add ground-effect capability to hovercraft. Now a clever New Zealand inventor has done just that!

New Zealand mechanic Rudy Heeman spent more than 11 years of his spare time (and tens of thousands of dollars) building the hoverwing, a wing-in-ground-effect vehicle that flies on a cushion of pressurized air created between the wing and the water's surface. Hoverwing can reach an optimum height is 1.5m (4-5ft) above the water and has a current top speed of 98kmh (61mph).

Heeman told the The Nelson Mail that the "hoverwing", which is almost complete, has drawn local residents from their houses and cars to watch test flights over the Haven in the town of Nelson, at the northern tip of New Zealand’s south island.

Heeman is no stranger to hovercraft – he’s built and sold them for some time. But the hoverwing is his most ambitious project. So ambitious that an early test flight just prior to Christmas last year resulted in a crash landing. But it wasn't enough to deter him from completing the project.

The hoverwing is powered by a modified Subaru car engine while the body comprises most fibreglass. _Gizmag_via_TheNelsonMail

A hovercraft can cross land, water, sand, mud, ice, etc. but it cannot fly over obstacles above a certain size. Adding a "ground-effect" capacity to the vehicle allows it to travel over walls, ditches, larger waves, and other surface disruptions that could stop a mere hovercraft.

"This machine is fast and furious, it roars like a lion, and is not for the faint hearted. It is adrenalin pumping and exciting."

With a 1.8-litre engine and a range of more than 225 kilometres, the hovercraft cruised at 90kmh when flying, and had a smooth ride above the waves, he said.

"The fuel economy is far better than a boat of the same size and speed."_TheNelsonMail

Hovercraft Works Well Over Arctic Terrain

Scientists and explorers are discovering the utility of hovercraft for Arctic research and exploration. Equally adapt over snow, ice, water, mud, or dry land, the versatile craft allow you to keep going over ever-changing surface conditions.

Two polar scientists hot on the trail of an arctic mystery have a new tool for exploration: a hovercraft, specially outfitted for week-long trips over the ice with scientific instruments and solar panels.

Their quarry is a nearly 22,000 square-mile patch of disturbed Arctic sea floor that could be evidence of a massive asteroid strike. John Hall, a now-retired geoscientist, discovered the anomaly during his late-’60s graduate work aboard Fletcher’s Ice Island, a huge berg U.S. scientists inhabited for several decades.

Since then, no scientific vessel has been back over the area to collect more data. The massive icebreakers that have crunched through the Arctic since the 1990s can’t reach the spot, said Yngve Kristofferson, a scientist and explorer at the University of Bergen in Norway.

...“The neat thing with a hovercraft is that you drive with the same ease over 10 centimeter-thick ice as you do with five meter thick ice,” Kristofferson told Wired.com.

Despite their futuristic reputation, hovercraft have been commercially available for decades. The concept is actually quite simple. A big engine or turbine pumps air into a rubber skirt that allows the vehicle to tread lightly on whatever it’s touching. The R/H Sabvabaa, for example, weighs six tons but exerts no more pressure on any patch of ice than a seagull standing on one leg would by standing on it. The rest of the power from the engine is devoted to propulsion, allowing the craft to skip along at speeds up to 50 miles per hour. _Wired

Survival-oriented readers who anticipate the coming of a new Ice Age, will be particularly interested in the versatility of hovercraft travel.

Or consider the world after an EMP attack. Bridges over rivers would often become impassable due to congestion with undrivable vehicles. Major super-highways would become very long parking lots. Even if one could cross bridges and follow highways, in those conditions it might be wiser to bypass them -- for the sake of safety.

An ideal vehicle would be capable of all terrain travel, as well as running submerged, and intermediate distance flight. Hovercraft cannot fly and they cannot run submerged, but it takes time to design all the proper features into a craft -- and to develop the materials that allow such designs to function well.

Al Fin's 2009 Small Vehicle Survival Award Winner

The HovPod personal hovercraft is built for durability and versatile travel on all types of terrain. From water to mud to sand to ice to snow to pavement, this little package is not just for exhilaration and mirth. It can get you places few other craft can take you, quickly and economically.

If you need a quick evac out of a gridlocked city that is located on a river, coastline, or harbour, this little airboat is the next best thing to a personal helicopter that can put down on land or water.

Al Fin engineers are working on a fairly simple modification which will allow the HovPod to fly, using inflatable wings. Put simply, it will require more power, and hull materials with more favourable strength to weight characteristics. More on that option as developments allow.

More on DARPA Submersible Airplane

Here are the main challenges identified by DARPA:

DARPA identifies five technical challenges. First is the diametrically opposed weight requirements between an aircraft that needs to be light to fly and a submarine than needs to be heavy to submerge. DARPA believes it should be possible to meet these requirements by controlling lift and volume - potentially by generating downforce on the wing and flooding spaces in the airframe to submerge.

The second challenge is to design a shape that works in air and water despite the difference in density. Here the key is that flows are similar in both fluids if something called the Reynolds Number (Re) is the same. DARPA believes it is possible to design a platform that operates at the same Re, airborne and submerged, but at radically different speeds: 100-400kt in air and 5-18kt in water.

Challenge three is structural - aircraft are pressure vessels with thin skins; submarines have thick skins to withstand crushing loads: the forces are applied in opposite directions. But DARPA believes this problem is dramatically reduced by limiting operating depth to the minimum required to avoid perturbing the surface.

Fourth is wing location. Traditionally seaplane wings are placed high to avoid the waves and shield the engines. Lowering the wing increases ground effect while sea-skimming. But the wing needs to be below the water to generate the downforce required to submerge. DARPA sees a range of possibilities ranging from two separate wings, one for air and one for water, to a single morphing wing able to change its height, area and airfoil.

The final (?) challenge is the powerplant, which must work submerged as well as airborne. Aircraft engines are light; submarine powerplants are heavy. One option is a single engine with air-independent and air-breathing modes. Another is dual powerplants, one breathing air and one running off batteries, fuel cells or DARPA's Aluminum Combustor. The agency believes the shallow depth required will allow use of a snorkel to provide air to the engine when submerged._AviationWeek_via_Wired

These are engineering challenges which may well require advances in materials science for their optimal solutions.

It is one think for DARPA to commission such vehicles for top secret, covert operations. It is quite another for Airstream or Winnebago to build them as RVs for the general public. At this time, I am willing to compromise and substitute a "surface effect" flier for a true aircraft, as long as the machine can go submerged for days at a time, and travel over the surfaces of roads, water, snow, mud, ice, rough ground, etc.

In an Obamanation, we will want to retain the freedom of travel in the fullest sense possible. Excessive limitations are for primitive and between levels humans, Obama zombies. We strive for something better.

Fly Over Water, Ice, Mud, Sand, Snow, Grass.....

These amphibious vehicles allow you to hover over any flat surface, including water, ice, snow, sand, mud, grass._HovPod

The HovPod is a powerful and versatile multi-terrain vehicle capable of carrying 3 adults. If equipped with special outriggers it could even travel over treacherous glaciers and sea ice.

Powered by a 120 HP 4 stroke http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stroke Weber engine which offers greater performance and range, the SPX 120 hovers at a height of 9-inches over any flat surface, including water, ice, snow, sand, mud or grass and can reach speeds approaching 50mph on water. It's also buoyant enough to take over a ton in weight before water ingresses into the hull, making it suitable for commercial, patrol and rescue use. _Gizmag

It should be easily trailerable, for transport anywhere the fun or the job may be.

The hovercraft concept is ripe for innovations. Innovations in the HovPod models--including a built-in buoyancy composite layer--make it much more functional under a wider array of circumstances. The addition of an airfoil--perhaps an inflatable airfoil--would further widen the range of applications possible for the craft. In my opinion, development on this type of craft is just beginning.

Amphibious Sport Aircraft Folds for Trailer

Store this sport plane in your home garage, and trailer it to the water or runway for launch. This new plane is made by Icon Aircraft, and plans to start deliveries this year. US $ 139,000.00

The A5 belongs to the FAA’s new “light-sport aircraft” class, whose planes don’t have to go through the same lengthy certification process that discourages bold design in larger planes...You can fly the A5 with a simple sport-pilot certification, which requires half the training time of a standard license. A cockpit designed with input from carmakers such as Nissan has minimal instrumentation and a GPS navigation system, making the plane easier to pilot.

The wings are designed to minimize the danger of stalling, where they lose lift because the plane is traveling too slowly or its nose is pointed up too high. With the A5, stalling occurs gradually, providing plenty of warning for the pilot. __PopSci

It runs on unleaded gasoline, and has the cockpit design of a sports car. Seastead dwellers will find it the perfect vehicle for visiting friends on neighboring seasteads. Or you can move to that offshore island you've had your eye on, and commute to work by plane.

Amphibious "Sealegs" Boat

This boat will do over 60 mph in the water. The bad news is it only does about 6 mph on land. This amphibious vehicle is optimised for boating.

The Aquada from Gibbs pictured below is pretty fast on land or in the water, but is obviously not as functional for boating as the Sealegs in the video above.
A designer must make compromises when designing a multi-purpose vehicle. Vehicles designed to function as airplanes, boats, and automobiles are particularly difficult, due to the multiple constraints introduced by each of the three functions. As I have mentioned multiple times, my ideal vehicle would be legal and handle well on the highway (and off-road), travel swiftly and smoothly on or below the water's surface (down to 300 meters), and fly above 20,000 ft altitude with a range of 1500 miles. I would also like enough room to sleep comfortably in the vehicle. (but not while personally piloting the "plane."

With today's materials and propulsion technologies, such a vehicle is impossible. With a timely assist from nano-materials and molecular assemblers, along with advanced propulsion technologies, the vehicle could be both light enough and strong enough to fill all those roles.

Sporty Submarine/Automobile Hybrid

A Swiss design company, Rinspeed, will unveil a wet-submersible roadster/submarine at the March, 2008, Geneva Motor Show.

To be unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show in March, 2008, the rear-wheel drive sQuba is powered by an electric motor putting out 37 kW at 4,500 /min with torque of 160 NM at 1,500 /min according to the the specs released to date by Rinspeed. The rear jet drives for underwater cruising rely on two seperate 3.6 kW Rotinor (a name behind Seabob) electric engines and the body panels of the 920kg two-seater are made from carbon nano tubes with a steel chassis underneath.

Driver and passenger obtain fresh breathing air via 1 x 15 liter and 1 x 18 liter ScubaPro air supplies in a self-contained on-board system and back on dry land the sQuba is designed to drive itself autonomously at the push of a button.

Gizmag

Presumably, the sQuba is capable of surface cruising as well as submersible cruising to 33ft, and normal on-road driving.

My ideal vehicle is capable of on-road driving, surface cruising, dry-submersible running to 300 meters, and flying to an altitude of 25,000 feet with a range of 1500 nautical miles. It should be roomy enough for overnighting, with built-in water purification/desalination. Due to weight limitations, most food stored on-board would need to be freeze-dried.
;-)

Rinspeed's Splash hydrofoil/automobile amphibious vehicle crossed the English Channel in the summer of 2006. Video of that crossing is below.

Amphibious Flyer from Italy

The Ramphos amphibious flyer allows the adventurous-traveler-on-a-budget to explore coastlines of freshwater and saltwater bodies. Take off and land from either water or dry land. Put it up on a trailer for hauling longer distances.

It’s an amphibious flying boat that’s just as happy taking off and landing on water as on land with its retractable wheels. You can tow it around on a trailer, and like the best of late-night TV exercise equipment, it folds for easy storage. This purpose-built little 2-seater is effortlessly easy to fly, handles like a dream and offers a very affordable, practical and exhilarating way to explore the local lakes and coastlines with maximum thrills for minimum fuss.

The Ramphos is a slightly confused-looking air/land/sea vehicle – imagine a hang-glider that’s crashed into a boat with retractable wheels. This configuration may look odd, but it allows pilots the option of taking off and landing either on a nice flat runway or a body of water, opening up a lot of interesting sightseeing opportunities around the coastline and making it one of the most practical leisure vehicles around.

Takeoff from the water is a breeze – get up to about 30-40 knots and work the control bar forward and back to break free from the water surface. From standstill to airborne can take as little as 8 seconds in the right conditions and the Ramphos will launch in waves up to 50cm or so. Once in flight, it cruises at around 50 knots and the topless wing makes it stable and easy to fly. “Hands off and the Ramphos was completely stable,” noted Australian imported Rod Tyson, “the controls were precise and you don't need to be a gorilla to make the thing change from a right turn 45 degree bank to a 45 deg left bank.”

The landing gear doesn’t rely on any electronics – you simply pull on the brake lever to release a locking mechanism, and push the landing gear downward with a lever. Clear covered ports on the floor let you visually confirm the wheels are down and locked before they hit the ground. Landing on water is even easier than on a runway, allowing you the opportunity to drop the jaws of unwary locals as you swoop in from the sky, land in the water and drive straight up the beach.

SourceWith a little more time, we should soon have amphibious cars that fly. Add submersible functionality to that multi-purpose vehicle and I would almost have my ideal vehicle.

If Only It Could Fly!

Sure, it can drive on the highway at speeds up to 100 mph, and it can skim the surface of the water at up to 30 mph--pulling a water skier. But for my needs, it should also fly 1500 miles at 250 knots. One more thing--it really should be able to submerge to a depth of 100 meters with an underwater range of 500 miles.

The instrument panel would have to be flat panel computer screen--software transformable between instruments for flying, driving, boating, and submarining.

I feel that I am not really asking for a lot, and I am certain that many of you agree with me.