Container shipping takes to the air
An innovative hull form as well as air lift and air lubrication technologies are being combined in a high-speed container ship project that stakeholders hope will allow them to compete with air transport on delivery times. By Dag Pike.
Over the years there have been several new hull concepts designed to improve the efficiency of ships. Many of these revolve around subtle change to conventional hull design whilst others adopt new technology concepts such as hovercraft, air-supported vessels, small waterplane area twin hulls (SWATHs), multihulls etc. The aim has always been to allow higher speeds or greater efficiency but whilst they advance ship design in some respects there tends to be a downside in the loss of other aspects of performance such as perhaps, seaworthiness.
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