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The one and only Caravans International Hover-Sprite air cushion caravan, London, England. Anon., “International News.” Air-Cushion Vehicles, January 1969, 9.

Road Transportation

Can one be seasick in a caravan?

Rénald Fortier

Ingenium – Canada's Museums of Science and Innovation

Hello there, my reading friend, and welcome to the first 2019 issue of our blog / bulletin / thingee on the wonderful world of aviation and space, and… What’s this? You do not think that an air cushion caravan fits the mandate of the Canada Aviation and Space Museum of Ottawa, Ontario? I respectfully beg to differ. This unlikely hybrid did lift off the ground, did it not? Besides, you can’t tell me that you are not the least bit intrigued by the image yours truly dredged up from the January 1969

The Raketa class Soviet hydrofoil in which J. Roland Leduc and his wife went from Montréal, Québec, to Port of Spain, Trinidad. Jacques Maher, “Un Canadien français vend des bateaux russes à Trinidad”. Le Petit Journal, 8 December 1968, 14.

Marine Transportation

Rockets of the Caribbean

Rénald Fortier

Ingenium – Canada's Museums of Science and Innovation

Zdrasvstvuyti / hello, my reading friend. May yours truly begin this peroration by apologising profusely for the quality of the illustration with which I have the pleasure of introducing this issue of our blog / bulletin / thingee? The story behind it more than compensates for its fuzziness. I came across it while perusing a now defunct weekly newspaper from Montréal, Québec, Le Petit Journal. The title of the article was indeed intriguing. It’s not every day one comes across a retired Royal

Using what appears to be a Power Jets W.2 turbojet engine to remove mud at the bottom of the River Thames, Erith, England, August 1947. Anon., “Have you seen?” Flying, June 1948, 42.

There is mud slinging, and then there is mud slinging

Rénald Fortier

Ingenium – Canada's Museums of Science and Innovation

Bonjour, ami(e) lectrice ou lecteur et… Sorry, wrong language. Greetings, my reading friend. I hope you’re not wearing your best clothes because today’s topic is a somewhat yucky one. Do you remember the April 2018 issues of our blog / bulletin / thingee dedicated to snow removal? No? Yes? Never mind, for there are no snow cones on the menu today. Think mud pies. Huge mud pies actually. Back in 1946-47, some brilliant minds in the United Kingdom began to look at non aeronautical applications of

The floating island designed by Henri Defrasse. Anon., “Un Nuevo proyecto de isla flotante.” Alas, 1 June 1928, 189.

Propeller Island, by Henri Defrasse – and not Jules Gabriel Verne

Rénald Fortier

Ingenium – Canada's Museums of Science and Innovation

Welcome and bienvenue, my reading friend. Are you ready to hear about one of the crucial aspects of the history of technology? Yes? Welcome, then, to the world of failure. You seem surprised. Don’t you know that most aircraft designs of the 20th and 21st centuries have been failures? Not every aircraft design was actually put to the test and a great many that were tested were never put in production. Worse still, many operational aircraft did not prove successful, for a variety of reasons. So

The prototype of the Cushioncraft CC7 hovercraft a few minutes before a demonstration run, Royal Saint Lawrence Yacht Club, Dorval, Québec, June 1969. Anon., “–.” Air-Cushion Vehicles, July 1969, cover.

There is more to life than airplanes, Part 3

Rénald Fortier

Ingenium – Canada's Museums of Science and Innovation

Hi there, my reading friend. Yours truly is pleased to welcome you. We have so much to say (type?) today on the Cushioncraft CC7 hovercraft. And yes, there will be plenty of content from Québec and Canada. Our story began in May 1969, in Montréal, Québec, in the city’s busy harbour to be more precise, when the partly disassembled prototype of the CC7 was unshipped, put on the trailer of an 18 wheel truck and sent to a Department of Transport base at Sorel, Québec. A division of the Saint

The prototype of the Cushioncraft CC7 light utility hovercraft during its sea trials, Saint Helens, Isle of Wight, England. Anon., “ACVs – CC7 on sea trials.” Aeroplane, 22 May 1968, 27.

There is more to life than airplanes, Part 2

Rénald Fortier

Ingenium – Canada's Museums of Science and Innovation

You’re back, my reading friend. Has a week passed since our last interaction? Astonishing. Time does indeed fly. Do you remember the topic at hand? Good. Let us continue. Rightly or wrongly, the management of Cushioncraft Limited chose to fully test the CC7 before launching a wide scale effort to sell it. Foreign buyers would be the main target. This approach was based at least in part on feedback from Hovertravel Limited, the first hovercraft transport company in the world and one in which

The prototype of the Cushioncraft CC7 light utility hovercraft, St. Helens, Isle of Wight, England, April 1968. John Bentley, “Latest Light Utility: Cushioncraft CC7.” Flight International (Air-Cushion Vehicles supplement), 23 May 1968, 61.

There is more to life than airplanes, Part 1

Rénald Fortier

Ingenium – Canada's Museums of Science and Innovation

If truth be told, there is indeed more to life than airplanes. A list of items covered in this non aeronautical category would be very long. Any list worthy of the name should, however, include Belgian style beer, dinosaurs and pterosaurs (Private joke. Hi there, Number One.), as well as air cushion vehicles. In other words, hovercrafts. What is a hovercraft, you ask? The question in itself is painful, my reading friend. It shows how little people remember a go-anywhere machine that promised to

The first Bell Aerospace Model 7380 Voyageur, Grand Bend, Ontario, December 1971. Michael L. Yaffe, “Air Cushion Cargo Craft Tested in Canada.” Aviation Week and Space Technology, 20 December 1971, 58.

A Puffalo! A Puffalo! My kingdom for a Puffalo!, Part 3

Rénald Fortier

Ingenium – Canada's Museums of Science and Innovation

Yours truly was so fascinated by the story of the Air Cushion Landing System that I decided to dig further still. Thus, let it be known throughout the land that, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Bell Aerosystems Company, a subsidiary of Bell Aerospace Corporation later known as the Bell Aerospace Company Division of Textron Incorporated, was the most experienced manufacturer of air cushion vehicles / hovercrafts in North America. The American company, for example, held the license for the

Marine Transportation

Louis Shickluna- Designing Ships for the Early Welland Canals

St. Catharines Museum

Louis Scicluna was born in 1808 to Therese and Joseph Scicluna on the island of Malta. Joseph was a dockyard worker, and both him and Therese encouraged their son to attend school and achieve good grades. Louis, however, showed no interest in academics and faired poorly in class. Afraid that his son would not find a career, Joseph Scicluna took his son Louis to the shipyard in hopes that Louis would develop an interest in becoming a shipwright. Joseph’s plan worked, and for the rest of his life

Life Jacket: Pitchayarat-Chootai/Shutterstock.com

Household Technology

Life Jacket

Ingenious - Ingénieux

The Inuit fisher’s insurance. When exposed to Canada’s frigid waters—both coastal and inland—you will often perish more quickly from heat loss than drowning. Inuit whale fishers knew this truth. They made what are known as spring-pelts, which are sealskin or seal gut stitched together to create a waterproof covering for their torsos. These early life jackets evolved, more insulated and buoyant over time, until they became the sailor’s salvation we know today.

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