Dr. William Bertelsen

Dr. William R. Bertelsen is a great transportation inventor and visionary. He pioneered the creation of hovercraft (air cushion vehicles) in the 1950s, continued working in the decades since to perfect them with his Gimbal Fan, and recently laid the ground for a wonderful future of transportation with his Aeromobile-Aeroduct System.

Special Presentations
Audio: Interview with Dr. Bertelsen - streaming audio of Dr. Bertelsen relating his early years of pioneering research.

 
   What has Dr. Bertelsen Done for Transportation?
Dr. William Bertelsen is a medical doctor who also has an engineering background. Starting in the mid 1950s, Dr. Bertelsen was inspired by the experimental research done on vertical take-off aircraft to come up with the concept of an air cushion vehicle (a term he prefers, although the more common term is hovercraft). This is a vehicle that rides over any surface by creating a cushion of air. This air cushion enables the craft to hover above the ground and move in any desired direction. It has many advantages over wheeled vehicles, including being amphibious, not dependent on road surfaces and useable in many different terrain and weather conditions. Since his medical practice at the time was rural, he wanted to use such a machine to travel to his remote rural patients regardless of the weather.

Dr. Bertelsen built an early prototype of a hovercraft vehicle in 1959 (called Aeromobile 35-B), and was photographed by a photographer from Popular Science magazine riding the vehicle over land and water in April on 1959. The article on his invention was the front page story for the July, 1959 edition of Popular Science.

From that beginning, Dr. Bertelsen continued to innovate and promote air cushion vehicles throughout the years. He developed a number of hovercraft models that improved on earlier ones. In the later 1960s he created the most significant advance for air cushion technology - The Gimbal Fan. This device provides full cushion lift air in both vertical and horizontal directions, giving hovercraft much more stability and controllability. Gimbal Fan hovercraft are the best there is today in air cushion vehicles. Along with his inventions, Dr. Bertelsen founded this company, Aeromobile Inc., to promote hovercraft technology throughout this country and the world.

In the mid 1970s, Dr. Bertelsen took hovercraft technology in an exciting new direction with his idea of the Aeromobile-Aeroduct System . His Gimbal Fan vehicles operate in a cylindrical groove (tube) and can be operated completely by automatic guidance. The result is an environmentally friendly, passenger safe, economically efficient solution to the many problems of ground transportion. The congestion, accidents, pollution and high cost of existing modes of transportation disappear with the implementation of the Aeromobile-Aeroduct System. In 1996, this new mode of transportation and its creator, Dr. Bertelsen, were filmed by the Discovery Channel as part of their show Extreme Machines, which has been aired a number of times on the Learning Channel. This has helped bring worldwide recognition to this most important advance.

Dr. Bertelsen continues to refine his air cushion vehicle technologies and talk to interested parties all around the world about the potential of hovercraft, especially the automated Aeromobile-Aeroduct System. He is convinced that the dismal picture today of polluted, gridlocked cities where transportation is getting more impossible is not necessary. The technology to alleviate the existing woes of ground transportation and prevent future problems is here right now with his inventions. He hopes he can convince enough others of this very practical vision.


 
  A History of Dr. Bertelsen's Hovercraft Achievements
Here are some of  the milestones in Dr. Bertelsen's efforts to invent and perfect the air cushion vehicle.  In the Aeromobile Photo Gallery are photos of many of the craft he has created over the last 40 years.
Arc Wing Arcopter VTOL 1955 - 1957 Dr. Bertelsen's first interests in air cushion vehicles began with his exposure to the experimentation with vertical take-off aircraft. He made considerable advances of his own and developed model vehicles.  This work brought his attention to the idea of a "flying automobile", utilizing his discoveries about "ground effect"  and flight. 

Even though he has suspended for many years his work on the Arcopter vehicle to pursue the "flying automobile" concept, he hopes eventually to return to complete his endeavors on the Arcopter vertical take-off craft.
Aeromobile 35-A 1958 A four foot square craft that was the proof of concept of what Dr. Bertelsen then called a "ground effect machine" (GEM). It flew successfully in the workshop. This was his first  "flying  automobile". 

This vehicle, along with several others created by Dr. Bertlesen are in the permanent collection of the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution.
Aeromobile 35-B 1959 A larger, more advanced GEM.  Dr. Bertelsen piloted this vehicle over land and over a lake.  This pioneering flight was recorded by Popular Science magazine, and became the basis of an article in the July 1959 issue of that magazine.
Aeromobile 200-1 1961 A vehicle with much increased horsepower (200 h.p. engine) that could accommodate four passengers with its seven foot diameter. 
Aeromobile 200-2 1962 A version of the 200-1 craft commissioned by the U.S. Department of Commerce Office of  International Trade Fairs.  It was shown at the Tokyo International Trade Fair of 1962 to then Prince Akahito, and later exhibited at Trade Fairs in New Delhi, Zagreb and Turin 
Arcopter GEM-1, GEM-2, GEM-3 1961- 1964 These craft overcame the poor horizontal power and hill climbing features of the 200-1 and 200-2 vehicles with a re-designed propulsion system.  The GEM-2 flew over the frozen Mississippi river in 1962.
Aeromobile 10, 11, 12 1964 - 1967 The last of Dr. Bertelsen's craft with rudders. They had more control than any previous vehicles - with integrated lift and thrust. There were still limitations, though,  and it became clear that a new approach to air cushion travel was needed.
Aeromobile 13 1968 The first of the Gimbal Fan Aeromobiles. 
Dr. Bertelsen had realized that the rudder in slipstream approach of all previous vehicles could not work.  His solution was the use of ducted fans - The Gimbal Fan.

He quickly found that two Gimbal Fans per vehicle - one at the front and one at the rear- yield maximum thrust and controllability.  The "Gordian Knot" of air cushion vehicles had been resolved.  Dr. Bertelsen considers the Gimbal Fan to be the "optimum prime mover" for ACVs.
Aeromobiles 14 - 16 1970 -  1985 These amphibious craft refined the use of Gimbal Fans to power air cushion vehicles. Each model had increased power and payload capacity, and became larger.  At the same time,  pilot control increased, so that reverse motion, stopping, and stability in high cross winds were characteristic. 
Aeromobile 17 (the Aeromobile-Aeroduct System) 1975 - 1996 Starting over almost decades ago, Dr. Bertlesen embarked on an entirely different course: the development of completely automated transit using his Gimbal Fan Aeromobiles.  He realized the many economic, environmental and safety advantages of using tubular rights of way to guide hovercraft in an automated fashion. 

The Aeromobile 17 vehicle represents the completion of the basic R&D needed to fulfill Dr. Bertelsen's vision of the future of transportation.  He considers this to be the crowning achievement of his many years of pioneering work in the field of  air cushion vehicles. 
Aeromobile 2000 1997 - 1999 This is the ultimate of Dr. Bertelsen's amphibious line of vehicles.  All his years of innovation and improvement are the basis of a superb machine. 

It will be commercially available in the first half of 1999.


 
  A List of Publications by Dr. Bertelsen
Over the years, Dr. Bertelsen has authored a number of papers for journals and professional organizations. Here is a list of the most important ones (in chronological order):
1. "Experience with Several Man-Carrying Ground Effect Machines", First International Symposium on Ground Effect Phenomenon, Princeton University, October 21-23, 1959.
2. "The Design of Ground Effect Vehicles", Canadian Aeronautical Journal, Vol 6, No 6, 1960.
3. "The Gimbal Fan Air Cushion Vehicle", AIAA/SNAME Advance Marine Vehicle Conference, San Diego, CA , April 17-19, 1978.
4. "The Air Cushion Vehicle in a Mass Transportation System", Ninth Symposium on Air Cushion Technology, Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute, October, 1975, Ottawa, Ontario.
5. "Proposals for Comprehensive Overland Heavy Transportation for All-Season, All-Climate via Air Cushion Systems", Thirteenth Canadian Symposium on Air Cushion Technology, September 1979, Montreal, Quebec. 
6. "Thirty Years of Research and Development on Air Cushion Vehicles", American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Intersociety Advanced Marine Vehicles Conference, June 5-7, 1989, Arlington, Virginia.
7. "The Air Cushion Vehicle in Automated Transportation System: An Update", Canadian Air Cushion Technology Society Conference on Air Cushion Technology, September 21, 1994, Montreal, Quebec.
8. "A Ground Transportation System for the Twenty First Century", oral presentation at CACTS '98, Montreal, Quebec, June 16 to 19, 1998.

You can download this presentation for viewing and printing: 
Dr. Bertelsen's CACTS '98 Address


 
Home Page Amphibious Hovercraft  Aeroduct System Gimbal Fan Dr. Bertelsen Photo Gallery
Videos Slide Shows Documents CD-ROMs

 

Top of Page
Send Us E-Mail		 Join Our 
Mailing List		 Links and HoverRings Last Update: 3/30/00 
webmaster