Pioneer MK3 specification full info

General Description

The Pioneer Mk3 hovercraft is an amphibious hovercraft designed to carry 25 passengers or 2 tonnes payload + 1-crew. The air-conditioned cabin provides comfortable seating and good visibility for the passengers and crew. The Pioneer Mk3 is powered by two Steyr M16 engines of 160kW each and will cruise comfortably at 35 knots on water and higher on hard surfaces.

The Pioneer Mk3 follows the well proven format of the very successful Surveyor and Pioneer series of designs introduced 1986 and incorporates many incremental improvements, resulting in an outstanding new design.

Construction is in accordance with Australian USL, British Hovercraft Safety Requirements (BHSR), Transport Canada (TP5579), Lloyds HSSC rules and other class requirements.

Technical Details Table

Technical Details, Descriptions

Classification

Classification may be carried out according to:

1. Australian Uniform Shipping Laws, “Class 1D” (available now)
2. Lloyds Register of Shipping (available soon)

Hull and Superstructure

The hull is moulded with reinforcement from Epoxy resin and non-woven E-glass fibreglass reinforcements and Divinycell® cores for increased panel stiffness. This method of construction is lightweight while retaining excellent strength and stiffness. Thermal and sound isolation properties are excellent for this construction system. All laminating is conducted within an ISO 9001 certified environment with active quality control procedures to ensure the highest quality. The hull construction complies with or exceeds the Australian U.S.L., HSSC and other international survey society requirements. Seat fixing strong points are moulded directly into the hull. Under-hull moulded Urethane landing pads are fitted for hull protection.

Four lifting ‘U-bolts’ are mounted through the deck and internally strengthened. A towing eye is fitted to the bow and to the stern. There are eight cleats mounted to the deck (separate to lifting eyes) for general mooring duties.

Cabin

The cabin sides and ceiling are finished in fire retardant fabric to owner choice. The floor is in gelcoat finish or covered with heavy duty vinyl to customer choice.

The two large doors are top hinged and open ‘gull-wing’ style. Fold out steps are fitted to each gangway. The steps and the doors may optionally be fitted with pneumatic openers enabling open and shut operation from the driver position.

Glazing:

All windows are custom manufactured from laminated safety glass. The front screen and front quarter windows have wipers and washers fitted (total of 5). All glazing is bonded with polyurethane adhesive sealant.

Seating:

Longitudinal seat mounting rails (aircraft style) are incorporated into the cabin floor so the seating arrangements may be varied according to demand. The seats are UES Technoseat style with medium backs, rear mounted brochure holders, under-mounted life jacket containers and easily replaceable covers with hard wearing fire retardant fabric to owner choice.

Total seating capacity is variable, 1-crew plus 25-passengers. With seats removed the floor provides a flat work space and the seat mounting rails can be used for securing cargo.

A bilge pump is fitted into a recess at the rear of the cockpit for water removal. A large diameter (38mm) ‘drain-bung’ is also fitted in the rear floor area to facilitate washing out of the cabin.

Engines

Power is provided by two units of Steyr M16 Turbo Intercooled diesel engines. These engines produce ample power of 160kW each and are organised for complete redundancy enabling the Pioneer to return to base whilst operating on only one engine. All controls, transmission, fuel, cooling, exhaust, power generation and auxiliary systems are duplicated for complete redundancy.

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Exhaust Systems

The engines exhausts are ducted through extremely quiet ‘Cowl’ type mufflers and eject to the rear via the radiator cooling air discharge ducting. This arrangement keeps the exhaust gasses enclosed in the radiator exhaust air-stream until it is well clear of the craft bodywork, thereby reducing the craft cleaning requirements. All contactable hot surfaces are lagged for safety.

Propeller

There are two in-flight pitch adjustable ducted propellers of 1400mm diameter X 5 blades. The propeller blades are precision moulded from Carbon-Fibre and Epoxy resin and are post-cured at high temperature to obtain consistent high tensile strength. The propellers provide full in-flight pitch control and reversing. The pitching mechanism is controller by the operator through the PLC to ensure the optimum angle relationship to the engine speed thus ensuring the best of performance and economy whilst protecting the engines from overloading. Manual over-ride with priority to engine speed or pitch angle is available. Emergency ‘get you home’ manual setting is also available.

Propulsion Transmission System

An automatic clutch is fitted directly to the rear of the engine. The clutch automatically disengages the engine at idle speed to stop the propellers. This provides added safety for bystanders and also reduces shock loading on the transmission during engine starting and stopping. Toothed belts provide positive power transmission from the engine shaft to the propeller shaft. The propeller shaft is firmly supported by self-aligning bearing units within the transmission housing.

Lift Fan

The lift fan was designed and developed specifically for this hovercraft. It is a mixed flow type and provides maximum efficiency and minimum noise along with large performance reserves while running at a relatively slow speed. The lift fan is moulded from Epoxy resin and Carbon fibre and the fan stator blades are moulded from epoxy resin and glass fibre.

Lift Fan Transmission

The lift fan is mounted to a Rexroth bent-axis hydraulic motor. The hydraulic motor is provided by oil from the pumps mounted on the engines. The pumps are of the variable displacement type and are controlled automatically by the PLC to a pre-set pressure which keeps the lift fans running at constant output independently of the engines speed. The pre-set speed may be easily varied at any time by the pilot for different operating modes. This is a unique system which is easily controlled and allows efficient use of available power by applying only what is necessary to meet lifting requirements and leaving all other available power for thrust.

Apart from the single fan motor, all other parts of the hydraulic system are duplicated and able to operate alone, thus providing the best possible redundancy of operation. Full lift power is available via either pump alone. Two pumps together have a relatively easy task leading to long component life.

All hydraulic filtration to 5 Mm and cooling is suitable for tropical (+40oC) to arctic (-35oC) operation in salt water and dusty conditions.

Skirt

The skirt is a fully pressurised tapered bag and finger system. The bag pressure is higher than thecushion pressure and is regulated by control orifices in the bag inner membrane. This system is well proven to be the most stable and dynamically efficient skirt system available for amphibious hovercraft today. The skirt is CNC cut for consistent and exact fitting to the hull.

The skirt is manufactured from Urethane coated Nylon fabric. Urethane is extremely tough and provides considerably greater resistance to abrasion and tearing compared with other fabric types commonly used on other hovercraft. All joints are R.F. welded for exceptional strength. Urethanes have good low temperature flexibility (down to -35 °C) and are suitable for use in very cold areas. Colour is normally black but many colours optionally available.

Controls

The controls are simple and easily managed. Turning, Pitching and Rolling the Pioneer is easily accomplished by a single joystick mounted to the pilot’s seat. The speed of each engine and the pitch angle of the respective propeller are jointly controlled by a single lever, in similar fashion to the typical boat engine speed lever…

• Lever to central position is engine idle and no pitch to the propeller.
• Move the lever forward increases both engine speed and propeller pitch until the combination arrives at the most economical cruising point. Further forward movement of the lever increases engine speed and reduces pitch angle to provide maximum thrust.
• The same lever mover to the rear of the central position repeats the same sequence but with the propeller angle going into reverse pitch.

The system has two levers, one for each engine and propeller combination. The operation of the lever is selectable from 4 standard programs…

1. Automatic and Independent. Operation as described above but with the Port and Starb’d sides independent of each other. This will allow forward thrust on one side and reverse thrust on the other side. Most suitable for manoeuvring.
2. Automatic and Synchronised. Similar to above but with both engines and propellers in synchronisation. Most suitable for cruising.
3. Manual – Engine priority. When switched to this mode the levers control only the engine speed. Propellers stay at the last set point. Useful for running engines through speed range with the propellers set to neutral pitch.
4. Manual – Propeller priority. When switched to this model the levers control only the propeller pitch angle. The engines stay at the last set speed. Useful for manoeuvring.

All primary controls and most secondary controls are linked through the Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC’s). This arrangement provides the most comprehensive set of controls possible whilst at the same time providing a very simple operator interface. Additionally the PLC system provides warning, protection and logging systems that would be impossible otherwise. The complete PLC system, power supplies and controls are duplicated to provide redundancy and compliance with class rules. The PLC system is made up of internationally available and well recognised industrial components such as Rexroth, Siemens, Omron etc.

Instrumentation and Indicators

Display on 17” Touch screen console

Hydraulic System

Thrust Engines

Other Instrumentation

Electrical System

System voltage is nominally 24 volts DC. The normal voltage range is 21 volts to 28 volts. Each engine has a 100-amp alternator charging one dedicated bank of batteries per engine.

Batteries

Each engine has one starting battery bank compromised of two 12 volt batteries in series to provide the nominal 24 volts for the starting system. All batteries are connected and fused through remotely operated BEP isolators according to class rules. An additional remotely controlled isolator provides parallel connection of the port and stb’d battery banks for the emergency starting of either engine.

An additional 12 volt emergency radio battery is mounted under the dashboard and charged from both/either starting battery bank via electronic remote regulators.

An automatic battery control system manages the batteries and reports through the ModBus to the PLC control system to provide information and warnings of condition, voltage and temperature. This prevents over-charging, discharge beyond pre-set limits, over-temperature and warns of impending battery fault conditions such as a failing cell.

Protection

Circuit breakers, PLC controls and fuses are installed according to class rules. All electrical cable is marine type tinned copper multi-strand cable with V95°C (or better) low halogen insulation. All terminations in exposed areas are crimped and covered with heat shrinking and hot-melt insulation for corrosion protection. Exposed cable runs are protected in conduits. Circuits are clearly marked with an engraved switch panel and a matching circuit diagram in the operating manual.

Lighting

All navigation lights are of ‘Aquasignal’ series 20 type and comply with IMO recommendations. In addition a flashing orange beacon is mounted atop the thrust cabin according to the British CAA requirements for hovercraft.

Inside the cabin is a low powered work light with selectable white or red light for map reading. Main cabin lighting is provided by dimmable LED strip lighting. Entrance and steps are illuminated by LED lights. Beside the cabin doors are 15 Amp power outlets suitable for connecting a highpowered spotlight or other auxiliary device.

A directionally adjustable spot light is optionally mounted to the roof.

Fuel System

There are two fuel tanks, each of approximately 100 litres and mounted to each side of the cockpit. The fuel tanks are formed by flexible bladders mounted inside compartments. All fuel piping (apart from short flexible elements near the engine) is of copper pipe. A safety shut off valve is mounted to each tank. Electric fuel pumps and filter assemblies supply fuel to each engine. An ultrasonic fuel gauge sender is incorporated into each tank space and linked directly to the PLC to enable comprehensive fuel management reporting. Preferred fuel type is standard automotive diesel.

Fuel Ballast System

There are two fuel tanks, each of approximately 250 litres. One mounted in the bow area and one mounted in the stern area. Normal fuel ballast load is 150 to 200 litres. A high-flow reversible fuel pump is fitted for quick transfer of the fuel forward or aft to provide static trimming of the loaded craft. This relieves the dynamic control surfaces of static trimming load and increases the overall craft efficiency.

Fire Safety

A fire detection heat sensor is mounted in the engine room and connected to an alarm at the control position. The thrust engine room is fitted with a fixed CO2 type smothering system that can be activated from the control position. Additional portable CO2 type extinguishers are mounted inside the cabin. Areas of the engine room that are affected by radiant heat are shielded by stainless steel heat shields. The exhaust system is lagged and shielded to reduce heat radiation and increase safety.

Lifting

There are four lifting attachment points protruding from the deck upper surface enabling connection with cranes and other lifting tackle. A portable gantry is optionally available.

Computer generated images representing the general appearance.

NB: The above specifications pertaining to performance are based on a properly trimmed and maintained craft with a
competent operator. These specifications are subject to change as improvements are made and should only be
used as a guide unless specifically annexed to a build contract and signed by all parties to that contract.
Specifications may also be varied from time to time by agreement between the parties involved. This document is
based upon pre-production specifications of May 2008.