We went to open the 69* base (as previously described) in 1984, and found two Eliasons sitting there near the Lansing [snow-plane] and the white piano. I took one of the single cylinder engines, to use on a Hovercraft we were building at Halley 4. Bobby made the plywood frame body 8ft x 4ft. I made a mounting frame of steel box tube, and fitted a vent fan blade to the Eliason engine. It worked a treat as a lift fan. The skirt was tricky, made from old tent valance fabric. The craft flew once in our time, rather unstable. Has a Hovercraft been tried on the Bondu?Paul Whiteman comments:
[22 October 2013]
[In Z-Fids Newsletter No. 34] Mike Dixon comments on the engine used as the hovercraft lift fan. This was well after my time but I doubt that it was an Eliason unit as that was a cast iron Briggs & Stratton lump guaranteed to induce an instant hernia if you attempted to lift the toboggan out of where it had sunk, which was often. Almost certainly a Skidoo unit as they were all alloy and much lighter and if it was a Rotax, definitely so. [2 Apr 2014]
* Halley-II, otherwise known as "Grillage Village", actually built in 1967 not 1969. Ed.
Hovercraft were used by BAS in 1987-88 on the Larsen B ice shelf. See here. Ed.