Wolseley Hover Runner

History

The skirt could be raised so the vehicle travelled normally on its wheels, or lowered so the air cushion carried most of the weight, leaving the lightly loaded wheels to provide traction and steering over soft ground. The application actually trialled was agricultural crop spraying, where the vehicle's minimal ground pressure promised to protect soft fields. It failed in practice: air escaping from the cushion scattered the spray uncontrollably, and the conversion's added machinery cut heavily into payload.