The insane plan to convert dead airliners into hydrofoils

[emshighway]

http://dvice.com/archives/2010/04/crazies-want-to.php

http://dvice.com/assets_c/2010/04/flightless_jet-thumb-550x355-37536.jpg

Instead of putting old airliners out to pasture to rot in some cockroach corner, Hydro Lance wants to substitute pontoons for wings, and blast those Boeing 727s across the high seas. The company says it'll cost about $1 million to buy one of the decommissioned jets, and then once things get rolling, an additional $3 million to convert it to one of these jet-propelled ferries that can go 161mph.

[Derf]

Nice, but that is an L10-11 in the picture....


http://dvice.com/uploads/500x_hydro_lance__4_.jpg
lolol

[NLovis]

Good luck with that horrible idea. I see many many problem with it already

[Ari707]

I've always thought that sal****er and airplanes didn't mix well...

[Derf]

come on guys!!! THERE BRINGING BACK JATOS!!!!!

[emshighway]

Sully can test pilot them. :lol:

[Matt Molnar]

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that shipbuilding companies have thought about putting jet engines on hydrofoils before, and for whatever reason, they don't seem to have caught on.

Boeing built jet-powered passenger and military hydrofoils in the 1970s, the difference being the engines were in the water. As we can see, they didn't really catch on. They only sold a couple dozen ferries and a half dozen Naval vessels.

[moose135]

Been there, done that...
http://moose135.smugmug.com/photos/845078949_7bCPB-X3.jpg (http://www.vincelewis.net/ekranoplan.html)

[Tom_Turner]

There would be a problem with rogue waves (just for starters), but to the extent it might be done, using an old airliner fuselage is probably not the best way to go about it...