Bon Air 6-1-X Warana air cushioned vehicle, Hamilton, 1963. UPDATE; The University of Queensland kindly provided us with some correspondence about the vehicle. At the time it was transferred from the Department of Labour and Industry to the University, it was stored in a small hangar at Archerfield Airport. In January 1963 the Department of Civil Aviation was prepared to make the hangar available free of charge for six months, but then the correspondence ends! Flight International 20 December 1962 Queensland Government Buys ACV The Bon Air 6-1-X prototype of an air-cushion transport (write
Bon Air 6-1-X Warana air cushioned vehicle, Hamilton, 1963. UPDATE; The University of Queensland kindly provided us with some correspondence about the vehicle. At the time it was transferred from the Department of Labour and Industry to the University, it was stored in a small hangar at Archerfield Airport. In January 1963 the Department of Civil Aviation was prepared to make the hangar available free of charge for six months, but then the correspondence ends! Flight International 20 December 1962 Queensland Government Buys ACV The Bon Air 6-1-X prototype of an air-cushion transport (writes Stanley Brogden), has been bought from the designer, Maj Colin J. Bonner, and handed over by the Queensland State Government to the University of Queensland for evaluation and development. There is a possibility that the State Government will eventually either put the design into production or allow a firm to produce it under licence. This follows an agreement between Maj Bonner, who is a permanent officer of the Australian Military Forces, and the State Government that, if and when he brings the design to an agreed stage of development, the Queensland authorities will reimburse him for all costs to date. The present machine, the 6-1-X, was built between March and September this year and is named Warana (Blue Skies). It was given tethered tests on September 12 and became operational in October. Public hovering was done at Archerfield airfield, Brisbane, on November 8. These tests convinced the Queensland Government. The machine is built to carry four persons at around 50 at 8in hover-height, and up to eight persons at lower hover-heights. It is the first fullscale ACV to be built in Australia.
Size: 1626px × 1229px
Photo credit: © QS Archive / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: 1960s, 1962, air, archival, archive, archives, australia, australian, bon, collection, cushioned, historic, historical, history, hovercraft, image, photo, qsa, queensland, reference, state, vehicle, vintage
