The Lighter Side of Hovercraft Flight Training

If you think learning to fly a hovercraft – especially a rescue hovercraft – is all work and no play, check out these videos … and see what happens when a Neoteric hovercraft runs right over someone!

Neoteric flight instructor Steve Stafford is also the founder of Project H.E.R.O., Inc. (Hovercraft Emergency Response Operations), a non-profit group of rescue professionals who deploy hovercraft in disasters and assist police and rescue agencies. Steve often organizes informal rescue practice sessions with first responders to keep their skills honed.

During such a practice session with Indiana’s Washington Township Fire Department and White River Hazelton Fire Department, yes, they worked hard. But when the session ended, playtime began! Watch as they take campers on joyrides in their Neoteric rescue hovercraft … and run over each other with Stafford’s hovercraft ...

Yes, he really did get run over by the hovercraft – here’s the proof ... 

Just goes to show you how safe a hovercraft really is. Want to find out for yourself?

Sign up today for a Test Flight or a Pilot Training Course

(NOTE: Getting run over is not required!)

#TBT: Neoteric Hovercraft’s First Customer

Rarely can a company credit its origin to a single individual or family. Neoteric Hovercraft is proud to be one of those rare companies, with great thanks to the Talmage family of Long Island, New York, who helped launch Neoteric in the USA.

In the mid-1960s, John Talmage, a farmer and a pilot, and his 5- and 9-year old sons Henry and Bill, built a hovercraft from photos he’d seen in Popular Mechanics. Today, the original Talmage hovercraft hangs from the rafters of an aircraft hangar on their farm …

What followed is a true example of “six degrees of separation”. When he built his hovercraft, John’s sister Mary Ellen lived in Melbourne, Australia. Her landlord was Derrick Ravenscroft, a British draftsman at The Aeronautical Research Laboratories, where Neoteric’s now-President Chris Fitzgerald was employed. Mary Ellen showed Ravenscroft photos of “the crazy thing my brother and his sons built.” Ravenscroft then showed the photos to Fitzgerald.

In 1970, while on a world hovercraft research tour provided by his Rotary International Foundation award, Chris Fitzgerald visited the Talmages on Long Island and a lifelong friendship was begun. 

When Fitzgerald moved to the USA in 1975 and founded Neoteric Hovercraft, Inc., John Talmage financed the first hovercraft manufactured by the company: the original Neova 2, constructed of wood and fiberglass. Here, the Neova 2 is parked outside the Talmage hangar at their Riverhead Farm just after its arrival from Neoteric in Terre Haute, Indiana ...

This first hovercraft was used to develop the Neova 2 hovercraft kit and to garner publicity. Popular Mechanics soon published a feature story about the Neova 2, which immediately kicked off sales of Neova 2 kits for Neoteric. And, as they say, the rest is history.

#TBT: World’s First Hovercraft Race

For #ThrowbackThursday, let’s go back to March 14, 1964 when Chris Fitzgerald, Neoteric’s future founder and president, participated in the World’s First Hovercraft Race in Canberra, Australia ...

The Age Newspaper, 14 March 1964: This hovercraft will take part in the world’s first hovercraft race over Lake Burley Griffin today. In the cockpit, Edward Thomas;
from left, Ron Davies, Christopher Fitzgerald and Robert Wilson.

The race was a remarkable success. It drew more than 30,000 spectators and received extensive media coverage. London’s Flight International magazine reported: "March 14, 1964, may become a famous date in ACV history, for on that day, at Canberra, the world's first competitive hovercraft trials took place. An analogy may be drawn between the Canberra trials of 1964 and the Rheims air meeting of 1909: both mark the beginning of competitive development in their respective fields.”

Watch a video filmed during the race ...



In a 2001 article, journalist Eric Shackle related Neoteric’s evolution since the World’s First Hovercraft Race  ...

Melbourne Entrant’s Success Story

One of the entrants in the World's First Hovercraft Race, Australian Air Cushion Vehicle Development, vigorously pursued its interest in hovercraft, transferred to the US, and is now one of the world's leading manufacturers of the craft: Neoteric Hovercraft, Inc.

In 1964, the company competed in the first world hovercraft race. As experience mounted, the Rotary International Foundation awarded AACVD's president, Chris Fitzgerald, a scholarship for a world hovercraft study tour which resulted in contact with virtually every hovercraft project in existence.

Innovations continued and, by 1973, a prototype hovercraft, the Neova, was completed and AACVD formed a new company, Neoteric Engineering Affiliates Pty. Ltd., which created staggering world interest when it introduced the Neova at a press demonstration in July, 1974 in Melbourne, Australia. All were anticipating a promising future for this curious new flying machine.

Hoping to sell their technology to the burgeoning recreational vehicle market in the United States, the engineering team made what was intended to be a temporary move to the USA in 1975. After a short time, however, they discovered that there was a virgin market for the manufacturing of hovercraft and began reorienting their company's focus in that direction. This spurred the spin-off company, Neoteric Hovercraft, Inc.

Today, Neoteric boasts a clientele that spans 50 countries and includes Disney World, local and national [and international] rescue departments, dive teams, gold mines, environmental and fishery research departments at universities, oil-spill clean-up, the US Army Corps of Engineers and, of course, numerous people who enjoy exploring remote areas that cannot be reached by any other means.

They've come a long way since taking part in that historic 1964 race on Lake Burley Griffin!

#TBT: Neoteric Rescue Hovercraft in action at #FDIC

Firefighters and first responders: Kick off this #ThrowbackThursday with a video of a Neoteric Rescue Hovercraft in action at last April’s Fire Department Instructors Conference. Watch how the only hovercraft with reverse thrust for braking and backing up can be critical in rescue operations. First responders, this lets you easily reach the victim without having to submerge yourself in water, ice, snow, mud, etc. …

On to the future ... Mark your calendars now so you can get off to a flying start at FDIC 2019. Come to Neoteric Demo Booth 19403 to experience a rescue hovercraft flight every half hour. This is your chance to see why your fellow #firefighters and first responders in more than 50 nations rely on Neoteric hovercraft to keep them safe and take them where no other apparatus can go.

This is an ideal opportunity for you to see firsthand why Neoteric hovercraft are recognized worldwide as the fastest, safest, easiest way to rescue water, ice, swift water, mud and flood victims. Don't miss out!