| This page details the construction of the 509 and 512
crafts. The 504L/506 crafts were also built the same way. Most
of the pictures here are courtesy of Mr.
Lew Adkins of Canhover Air Cushion
Vehicles. Canair utilized a number of outside contract services to
build the ABS/Polycarbonate, the fiberglass and metal fab parts. They
would then take delivery of the parts and perform any light machining needed
to the parts. Then the crafts were assembled piece by piece on the
floor of the shop. Once the assembly got too heavy to deal with by
hand, air pallets (very mini hovercrafts using leaf blowers for air pressure) were used
to move the crafts around. The total number of actual employees was
fairly small which kept payroll down but at the expense of having
higher part costs than had they manufactured their own parts. Business
is always a balance. Must have been a pretty fun place to work - at
least until the end. The plastic parts were manufactured by making molds
out of MDF. The plastic sheets were then placed on top of the mold and
vacuum formed using heat and, well, a vacuum. This is a quick way to
build a medium number of parts with a minimal amount of tooling costs.
However, it requires a fair number of quality control checks to make sure
the plastic has the correct thicknesses as the process can cause thin areas
to be formed. Here are some pictures of the plastic molds and the
related plastic pieces before final machining.
The fiberglass parts were manufactured by hand. A "plug" mold was
made and finished smooth (notice the red finish). Then a release agent
was coated on the mold. Then wet fiberglass was layered on the mold
according to the strength needed. After which the cured fiberglass is
"popped" off the mold and given final machining. Works well but is a
messy job. Here are some of the pictures of the fiberglass molds and
some of the parts made this way The sixth mold from L-R appears to be
a port gas tank cover for a 504L/506.
The hull sections were made from a fiberglass composite. The
fiberglass was laminated over closed cell foam sheets. This makes for
a light and very strong assembly that naturally adds to the floatation of
the craft. Here are some pictures of the sections going together to
form the hull of the crafts. The forth picture from L-R is the one and
only 509 being built.
Ron Fishlock moved his business four times starting in his garage and
ending at the Padden facility. Here are some of the pictures of the
final manufacturing site. Notice the last picture. It shows a
filing system that looks like my garage but on a larger scale but, more
importantly, you can just see to top of a 512 that is being built.
This craft has a JRC radar unit installed which likely makes it serial
number QHO20003M99I which had a JRC 1000 system installed as an option.
The 509 and 512 crafts had electronic controls. These were Warner
Electrek 150 linear actuators that moved the rudders and splitter wings.
Here are a couple of pictures of how they were installed for the splitter
wings.
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This system also was coupled to an LED display on the
control panel to indicate the position of the splitter wings. |
Here are a couple more pictures of the crafts being manufactured.
These pictures are courtesy of Larry
Threlkeld at
Strike Zone Charters Inc.
in Big Pine Key, Florida. The yellow craft is the first 512
manufactured. I asked Lew Adkins about the color choice and he
indicated the craft was made that color at the customer's request to provide
a good contrast against snow. Likely a good safety thought but the
color.... The first picture is of the one 509 built which is currently
in Maryland. If you watch the fairly short Canair Promo movie on the
506 page, after the fancy 506 show and tell (it
was actually a 504L), you can see the 509 and the yellow 512 being taken out
on their test flights. Lew Adkins was the pilot in the 509 when
the video was taped and he had a total of approximately 3 hours of
hovercraft stick time before the video was taken. That says something
about his abilities or the crafts ease of use.
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