Hovercrafts #3

Hovercrafts from The Hunger Games

Final Post 10/19/2013

Kayla Durkin & Mikaela Cruz, Period 7 Goldner

A Capitol Hovercraft

Our initial assumptions on the hovercraft’s feasibility in our world today have been both validated and debunked through further research. Although we mentioned that the United States currently uses drones (see post #1), which are similar in terms of stealth, a hovercraft that is able to cloak itself, is not in our near future. Due to complications regarding technologies necessary to reach an advanced aircraft much like the Capitol’s in The Hunger Games, the hovercraft is likely to remain a hybrid vessel, at least in our time.

We agreed upon its feasibility initially because we did not consider the distinction between physical invisibility, and its undetectability --- stealth and noiselessness. As a result of naturally occurring materials’ incapacity to bend the light around an object, and obstruct the production of a reflection, scientists are still in the process of creating materials that will be able to carry out the function that will work on a larger scale (Graham-Rowe). Consequently, the costs will be excessive. In 2006, British and American researchers unveiled plans for the creation of a cloaking device. Professor John Pendry concluded that the cloaking device could have potential in the military stealth technology. However, “engineers have not yet been able to create the materials that could be used to cloak an aircraft or a tank,” he said (BBC News). These are major factors that will greatly impact the hovercraft’s potential feasibility in our society. While they seem invariably impossible at this moment, we believe that it will be possible to produce such versatile aircrafts SOMEDAY. There is currently no infallible evidence that could suggest that they are feasible as of right now.

On a more positive note, we were correct to assume that hovercrafts can be used in the military. Although we speak of the modern-day hybrid vessels, they have shown to harbor equally potent weapons of mass destruction. The Russian Army has a military hovercraft weighing about 550 tons. In August 2013, a Zubr-class hovercraft, which is said to carry advanced weaponry and transport destructive tanks made an emergency landing on a beach in Kaliningrad, Russia (The Week). Hovercrafts intended for warfare are undeniably more expensive and difficult to manufacture. However, engineers have done multiple how-to videos on building your own hovercraft for recreation!

Build and Ride Your own Hovercraft:

The Process and Our Collaborative Effort:

Kayla and I split the work evenly; we both contributed to what each post would contain context-wise while we were able to each choose which images we could use for the posts under our account(s). We were very disappointed upon doing research because we both enjoyed about learning the possibility of a powerful aircraft such as the ones in The Hunger Games (which we both LOVE) and ultimately finding out that it is not even possible. We did equal amounts of research and picked out which specific relevant points we could use to make a valid argument pertaining to the hovercrafts' feasibility and we both agree that the best part about our collaborative effort was learning about how the hovercraft is being used in the military and daily life.  

Works Cited:

BBC. "Plan for cloaking device unveiled." BBC News - Science and Environment. BBC, 25
May 2006. Web. 19 Oct. 2013.

Gayomali, Chris. "Enormous military hovercraft makes emergency landing on crowded  
Russian beach." The Week. The Week, 22 Aug. 2013. Web. 19 Oct. 2013.

Graham-Rowe, Duncan. "How to Make an Object Invisible." Technology Review.                   
         Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 11 Apr. 2007. Web. 19 Oct. 2013.