L'etat Francais, Represente Par Le Delegue General Pour L'armement

Jean-Pierre Guezou

Robert J Balquet

Jean-Paul Bertrand

Robert Baubeau

Philippe Carron

The present invention concerns hull shapes for a surface effect ship, including a catamaran type supported structure with two side walls (100) connected by a center platform (200), able to operate either as a buoyant displacement vehicle, or as an air cushion supported vehicle, the side walls (100) confining, with two sealing devices (310, 320), the supporting center air cushion (c). The shape features are as follows: each side keel (100) includes a floor segment (110), an inner wall (120) facing the air cushion (c), and an outer side wall (130); the floor segment is angled upwardly with respect to a horizontal plane, the angle increasing continuously from the after part to the fore part of the keel until forming a deep V at the most fore part; the inner side wall (120) is nearly vertical in the after and fore part and presents a bulge in its upper center part (170); the outer side wall (130) evolves from a concavely curved surface to a planar surface resulting in optimum performance for both modes of operation either as an air cushion vehicle or as a buoyant displacement vehicle.

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Athis Mons, France

Jean-Pierre Guezou