Iran's Scientific and Industrial Research Organization has announced that one of its subsidiaries has designed and manufactured hovercrafts in Iran.
Farzad Taherkhani, chairman of the company’s board of directors, said the company has successfully made single-seated and double-seated hovercrafts and the six-seat model of the craft will be unveiled by March 2017, Mehr News Agency reported.
"The vehicles are essential for rescue missions in times of crises, specifically floods," he said, adding that the development of recreational hovercrafts will prevent millions of dollars from exiting Iran.
Taherkhani noted that the engines are the same as those made by the Illinois-based company Universal Hovercraft. However, the price is lower, customer service is better and its spare parts can be easily obtained.
First appearing in the 1950s to 1960s, a hovercraft, also known as an air-cushion vehicle, is a craft capable of travelling over land, water, mud or ice and other surfaces. Hovercrafts use blowers to produce a large volume of air below the hull that is slightly above atmospheric pressure.
The pressure difference between the higher-pressure air below the hull and lower-pressure ambient air above it produces lift, which causes the hull to float above the running surface. For stability reasons, the air is typically blown through slots or holes around the outside of a disk or oval-shaped platform, giving most hovercrafts a characteristic rounded-rectangle shape.
