The Saab 401 MEFA was an experimental air-cushioned vehicle with a weight of 2 tons and capable of about 40 knots on open water with two people on board. A single prototype was built under contract to the

Swedish Navy The Swedish Navy () is the maritime service branch of the Swedish Armed Forces. It is composed of surface and submarine naval units – the Fleet (), formally sometimes referred to as the Royal Navy () – as well as marine units, the Amph ...

. The craft was first tested in 1963. The Navy retired the project in 1967 when it donated the 401 prototype to the

Maritime Museum A maritime museum (sometimes nautical museum) is a museum specializing in the display of objects relating to ships and travel on large bodies of water. A subcategory of maritime museums are naval museums, which focus on navy, navies and the m ...

in Karlskrona Sweden.

History

The Saab 401 MEFA project was created in the late 1950s as a collaboration between Saab and the

Royal Swedish Naval Materiel Administration The Royal Swedish Naval Materiel Administration (, KMF) was the central board of the Swedish Navy in technical and economic terms. It was active between the years 1878 and 1968 when it was disbanded and amalgamated into the Defence Materiel Adm ...

, Karlskronavarvet ( Saab Kockums) and the Swedish National Aeronautical Research Institute (FFA). Later the project was continued on lean funds at FFA. MEFA is the Swedish acronym for ''Markeffektfarkost'' ( ground effect vehicle); the craft was also known as the "MEFAN". Its design was led by Olof Ljungström.

Vickers-Armstrongs Vickers-Armstrongs Limited was a British engineering conglomerate formed by the merger of the assets of Vickers Limited and Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Company in 1927. The majority of the company was nationalised in the 1960s and 1970s, w ...

was contracted for engineering work. It was first tested March 4, 1963, in Norrköping. In January 1964, the 401 prototype was delivered to the

Berga Naval Base Berga Naval Base () is a naval base of the Swedish Navy located in the Hårsfjärden fjard near Berga, Haninge Municipality, Berga, Haninge Municipality. Today it is the home of the 4th Naval Warfare Flotilla (Sweden), 4th Naval Warfare Flotilla, ...

for testing. The craft was retired by the Navy in 1967, and donated to the Karlskrona maritime museum.

Design

The vehicle's lift was created by an eight-blade fan, driven by a 180 hp

Lycoming O-360 The Lycoming O-360 is a family of four-cylinder, direct-drive, horizontally opposed, air-cooled, piston aircraft engines. Engines in the O-360 series produce between , with the basic O-360 producing . The engine family has been installed in ...

piston engine. Propulsion was achieved partly with adjustable drive ports in the air chamber, and also by two 72 hp motors driving external propellers. Its hovering height was maximum 17 cm. The Saab 401 was not equipped with the large rubber-skirts used to direct airflow that are typical in

hovercraft A hovercraft (: hovercraft), also known as an air-cushion vehicle or ACV, is an amphibious craft capable of travelling over land, water, mud, ice, and various other surfaces. Hovercraft use blowers to produce a large volume of air below the ...

. Instead, the vehicle was designed so that it could withstand direct contact with the lake and solid surfaces such as ice.

References

{{reflist, 30em Hovercraft Saab vehicles