The amphibious versatility, marine speed and low footprint pressure have given the hovercraft a role in specialized applications. Among them are search and rescue, emergency medical services, military and arctic operations, icebreaking, patrol, law enforcement, ferries, and recreational activities such as racing. To meet these demands, the hovercraft has undergone considerable development since its inception. A comprehensive and timely review of the analysis, design, operation, economics and applications of hovercraft is presented in this volume by a team of highly qualified experts. The topics covered range from first principles to the state-of-the-art, with extensive references to current literature. The overall presentation is intended not to exceed the final year level of undergraduate engineering. The introduction and summary sections of all chapters are intended to give a qualitative grasp of the material covered without having to read all the technical portions.In varying degrees, the volume will appeal to managers, decision-support staff, operators, technologists, undergraduate students, and anyone entering the hovercraft field or seeking an introduction to it. It will also be of interest to design engineers, researchers and graduate students. Thus, this volume can serve as an up-to-date reference on several important aspects of hovercraft for a wide range of readers.

An exuberant, expansive cataloging of the intimate physical relationship between a reader and a book A way to leave a trace of us, who we were or wanted to be, what we read and could imagine, what we did and what we left for you. Readers of physical books leave traces: marginalia, slips of paper, fingerprints, highlighting, inscriptions. All books have histories, and libraries are not just collections of books and databases but a medium of long-distance communication with other writers and readers. Letter to a Future Lover collects several dozen brief pieces written in response to library ephemera—with "library" defined broadly, ranging from university institutions to friends' shelves, from a seed library to a KGB prison library—and addressed to readers past, present, and future. Through these witty, idiosyncratic essays, Ander Monson reflects on the human need to catalog, preserve, and annotate; the private and public pleasures of reading; the nature of libraries; and how the self can be formed through reading and writing.