Hover Scooter Shows Its Paces In Britain

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29366, 19 November 1960, Page 10

Hover Scooter Shows Its Paces In Britain

I From a Special Correspondent in London!

A Hover scooter which will cost no more than an expensive motorcycle made its world debut in Britain recently. The scooter capered about the back lawn of a country house on the outskirts of London and then “flew” across a lily pond. The machine will be marketed in Britain a year from now for “about £300.”

It is being handled in Britain by Mr George Hall, chief of a leading car hire flrm. He became interested in the project during a business visit to Washington earlier this year. The Hover scooter was then being tested by experts of the United States Army Research Department as a potential war weapon. However, permission has since been obtained to market the scooter for civilian use. The British demonstration run took place at Thames Ditton, Surrey. The inventor, Mr Charles Rhoades, and his mechanic, Mr Carl Mikan, had flown over specially from the United States. Based on the principle of the Hovercraft, the Hover scooter rides on a cushion of air at a height of about three inches. Air is drawn in through a cowling at the front of the machine by a specially designed four-bladed propeller.

The propeller is powered by a 250 c.c. twin-cylinder two-stroke motor-cycle engine, running about 5000 revolutions a minute.

Air is pushed out through a sort of Venetian blind containing shutters which can be angled to send the scooter in given directions. The controls are mounted on handlebars, just like those on a conventional motor-scooter.

A twist-grip throttle controls the engine speed and there is an ignition switch and a starter button. To move the engine forward the rider tilts his body towards the front. This increases the air cushion at the rear and forces the machine to move along. To pull up, the rider simply cuts the engine power. For speeds of over 15 miles an hour, two fins are fitted to the base as stabiliser units. The body is built of a new light-weight

plastic known as expanded royalite.

Quantity production of the machine has already commenced in the United States. In Britain it is to be marketed as a “build-it-yourself ’ crated kit.

The makers say the Hover scooter will shoulder a load of up to 5001 b—three times its own weight. Mr Rhoades admitted that the Hover scooter could never become a runabout on normal highways of today. “But its ability to travel over water makes it very valuable for rescue work on beaches,” he said.

He said that other uses might be for travel over unmade roads, deserts, or on construction jobs unsuitable for cars or trucks.— (Associated Newspapers Feature Service.)