Skirt facility for a ground-effect machine

Claim 1

A ground-effect machine adapted to be supported above a bearing surface, said machine having, in combination, a machine structure; a skirt facility projecting downwardly from said machine structure towards said bearing surface, said skirt facility comprising a plurality of elementary cells disposed in sequential side-by-side relationship whereby to bound together with said machine structure a plenum chamber; each said elementary cell including an inner flexible wall element and an outer flexible wall element having each an upper edge adjacent the machine structure and a free lower edge adjacent the bearing surface; said inner wall element having an outer portion which faces the plenum chamber, and a pair of side portions which extend inwardly from said outer portion towards said plenum chamber, whereby said inner wall element has a concavity to the plenum chamber; said outer wall element having an outer portion which faces the outer portion of the inner wall element, and a pair of side portions which embrace the respective side portions of the inner wall element; the sequential side-by-side relationship of said elementary cells being such that a side portion of the outer wall element of each cell is substantially contiguous with an adjacent side portion of the outer wall element of a neighboring cell; means for securing each elementary cell to the machine structure, such as to permit individual mounting and demounting thereof, said securing means comprising means for fixing the respective upper edges of said inner and said outer flexible wall elements to the machine structure in such relative positions that, in the vicinity of said upper edges, the respective outer portions of said wall elements are positively kept at a distance from one another, so as to bound together a substantially crescent-shaped space; passage means extending through the outer portion of the inner wall element of each elementary cell in the vicinity of the machine structure, whereby to afford communication between said plenum chamber and each crescent-shaped space; and means for supplying the plenum chamber with pressurized fluid, whereby said crescent-shaped spaces are permanently supplied through said passage means with pressurized fluid from said plenum chamber, when said supply means are operative.