Hovercrafts

Hovercrafts from The Hunger Games

By Kayla Durkin & Mikaela Cruz, Period 7 Goldner

Katniss Everdeen to Peeta Mellark, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins:

“One moment the sky was empty and the next it was there. It didn’t make a sound, but they saw it. A net dropped down on the girl and carried her up, fast, so fast like the elevator. They shot some sort of spear through the boy. It was attached to a cable and they hauled him up. But I’m certain he was dead. We heard the girl scream once. The boy’s name, I think. Then it was gone, the hovercraft. Vanished into thin air. And the birds began to sing again, as if nothing had happened.” (82)

Immobilized tributes in a Capitol hovercraft

What is a hovercraft?

A hovercraft is a type of aircraft predominantly used by the Capitol in The Hunger Games trilogy for both combat missions, and for transportation. Capitol hovercrafts are known to materialize nightly in order to broadcast highlights of the Hunger Games, deliver parachutes with gifts from the tributes’ mentors and sponsors and are infamous for their force fields that are able to draw dead tributes’ bodies with astounding stealth.

Does it seem feasible? How could it be used?

With the rapidly advancing technology we have in our society today, hovercrafts are very feasible. In fact, hovercrafts already exist in our world, yet they do not function at the same caliber as the ones described in The Hunger Games. A typical hovercraft today is simply a hybrid vessel that can literally hover as a result of an air-cushioned hull, which can travel over land, water, mud or ice. A plausible purpose of a hovercraft similar to the ones used during the Hunger Games could be a viable weapon for warfare because of its efficiency for large scale attacks, and surveillance capabilities.  

Why did you pick it?

We chose the hovercraft mainly because it appears to be an attainable technological advancement. Majority of the components that are needed to contest a typical Capitol hovercraft have already been achieved today. The U.S. Drone Program uses technology within aircrafts that are exceptionally productive in terms of surveillance, reconnaissance, and with the transportation of bombs and missiles (Cole and Wright, 2010). The complexities that hinder the hovercraft’s feasibility are the wide-range force fields and its invisibility, which both seem too ambitious for our time.

Are hovercrafts too invasive?

Unfortunately, they can be. As a result of their noiselessness, they can appear without warning which can hinder privacy. It is an eerie feeling to know that you are being watched by something, or someone that you can neither hear nor see. If they existed during our lifetime, mainstream paranoia over these sky giants is a likely consequence.

Sources: http://dronewars.net/aboutdrone/