THE DEVELOPMENT OF AUTOMATIC CONTROL SYSTEMS FOR HYDROFOIL CRAFT

The development of hydrofoil craft has been accomplished by two schools of endeavours. One school has pursued the surface-piercing principle whereby the craft is stabilised by variable submerged area. The other devotees have worked on various means of controlling the incidence angle. This paper is intended to bring into perspective how this latter school has progressed from pitching the craft to change the foil angle of attack, through unique and innovative mechanical means of controlling incidence to the rather sophisticated electronic automatic control systems of today. Such a paper is not complete without discussing the methods used to sense wave and craft motions and the methods employed to compute the proper control to the foil surface. Finally, the paper concludes by describing what now appears to be a most promising future control system based on digital computer technology.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Presented at the Conference on Hovering Craft, Hydrofoil and Advanced Transit Systems, Brighton, England, May 13-16, 1974.
• Corporate Authors:

  Kalerghi Publications

  51 Welbeck Street
  London W1,   England 
• Authors:
  • Johnston, R J
  • O'Neill, W C
• Publication Date: 1974-2

Media Info

• Serial:
  • Hovering Craft and Hydrofoil
  • Volume: 13
  • Issue Number: 5-6
  • Publisher: Kalerghi Publications

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Automatic control; Hydrofoil boats; Hydrofoils; Information processing; Ship pilotage
• Old TRIS Terms: Automatic control systems; Hydrofoil control; Hydrofoil craft
• Subject Areas: Marine Transportation; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00057278
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: National Maritime Research Center, Kings Point
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Aug 16 1982 12:00AM