LIGHTWEIGHT MANUFACTURING FLIGHT TAKE
How can hovercraft adapt to new roles, embrace new technology and stay relevant?
G
riffon Hoverwork is currently the largest hovercraft manufacturer in the world, with clients in various
industries from disaster rescue to defence. Mark Downer, engineering director, answers our questions about design, materials and propulsion.
WHAT DID COVID-19 DO TO YOUR BUSINESS? Covid-19 has presented challenges which we have learned to overcome. Always following the Government’s advice we have constantly reviewed our Risk Assessment and safe working practices to maintain essential capacity on the production line and the support team. Social distancing has had some impact on our capacity
but the greatest risk is any delays causing our supply chain to be late in delivering components, delays to clients being able to participate in acceptance trials or delays to customer training. We have been trialling high
definition video conferencing for progress reporting, examination and trials to mitigate delays. We have also worked to design and implement craft modifications for Covid-19-related medical roles such as high-speed patient transfer between the Isle of Wight and the south coast hospitals in Portsmouth and Southampton. To date the work from all our whole team has been exemplary, minimising the effect of Covid-19 and putting us in a better position than others who have not been as fortunate.
WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON NOW? Our top priority has been to ensure our users such as Hovertravel, coastguards, border guards and the RNLI are in a position to continue their essential work. We have just delivered a hovering cricket pitch cover and we are currently building four brand new hovercraft for fisheries and conservation, marine police and border guard roles.
WHAT ARE CUSTOMERS ASKING FOR? Generally, customers have been looking for craft with increased capability, capacity and safety whilst being more environmentally friendly, especially with tighter emission controls. These
22
www.engineerlive.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44
