Abstract: An air-cushion vehicle of the type having a flat rigid platform with rigid longitudinal walls attached to the platform. In such an air-cushion vehicle a plurality of transverse trough-shaped skirts are provided so as to form a space bounded by the skirt and the platform which, when supplied with higher pressure air, serves to provide an air cushion chamber. The vertical height of the air cushion chamber can be varied in accordance with the present invention by extending or retracting the material of the trough-shaped skirts by way of an adjustment mechanism. In a preferred embodiment, the adjustment mechanism comprises a skirt bar attached to each of two longitudinal edges of the skirt and a mechanism for moving the skirt bars sideways closer together or further apart, thus varying the skirt's vertical dimension.

Abstract: A water borne air cushion vehicle having a flat rigid upper rectangular sheet-like platform, and a plurality of flat rigid longitudinal walls attached substantially at right angles thereto and depending therefrom substantially parallel with the major axis of the platform. Two of the walls are disposed as side walls along respective edges of the platform, and a plurality of longitudinally spaced laterally aligned arrays of flexible trough-shaped skirts are looped with a space therein and fastened along the longitudinal edge of the underside of the platform flush with, but movable with respect to adjacent pairs of the walls. The skirts are extendable to a lesser depth than that of the walls, and a source of pressurized air is admitted through apertures of fixed size at a relatively high pressure to the skirts.

Abstract: A waterborne air cushion vehicle is described having a flat rigid upper rectangular sheet like platform, a plurality of flat rigid longitudinal walls attached substantially at right angles thereto and depending therefrom substantially parallel with the major axis of the platform. The outermost two walls are disposed as sidewalls along respective edges of the platform. The vehicle is provided with flexible trough shaped skirts which are independently movable with respect to the walls. A source of pressurized air forces air into the skirts and also into air cushion chambers located beneath the platform. The flexible skirts provide for less shock and resistance from wave formations due to the compression of the skirts.