The Hurricane Aircat was an airboat used as a riverine patrol boat by the US Army and South Vietnamese Army (ARVN) during the Vietnam War. It was used to conduct various counterinsurgency (COIN) and patrol missions in riverine and marshy areas where larger boats could not go.
Background
The Viet Cong (VC) insurgents, one of the US Army's main enemies in Vietnam, relied heavily on motorized and paddled sampans to move troops and supplies throughout the canals, streams, swamps, and rivers abundant in Vietnam, particularly in the Mekong River delta. The boats used by US forces prior to the Aircat's 1964 introduction relied on screw-propellers, which would become fouled by aquatic plants and thus rendered useless. US forces sometimes used paddled sampans to avoid this problem, although these sampans had the same speed as the VC ones and so were unable to effectively pursue and defeat them. Because US boats had trouble navigating the waters of the Mekong Delta, the region quickly became home to many Viet Cong strongholds and logistics bases.
In 1961, the US Navy brought airboats and pump-jet boats, neither of which rely on propellers in the water, to Vietnam at the behest of ARVN for testing. The Navy found that airboats outperformed pump-jets and screw-propeller boats in all respects except noise, although they concluded that airboats' noise made them unacceptable for use in counterinsurgency operations. Army special forces and others in the US and South Vietnamese militaries disagreed, however.
Development and selection
In spring of 1964, US Special Forces advisers to ARVN forces in South Vietnam expressed a need for fast, shallow-draft boats. In response, the Commander of the Military Assistance Command in Vietnam, (COMUSMACV) stated an operational requirement in June 1964 for shallow-draft boats capable of carrying 4-5 troops plus crew-served weapons that could negotiate aquatic plants and other obstacles abundant in marshes and rice paddies at speeds of at least . The Commander-in-Chief of the US Pacific Command (CINCPAC) approved the request on June 19, 1964, and ordered six airboats from two commercial manufacturers—the Hurricane Fiberglass Products Company of Auburndale, Florida and Susquehanna Danville Airport of Danville, Pennsylvania—to evaluate and test them and then select a winner. The Susquehanna airboats were a joint venture between Ken Burrows-owned Danville Airport of Danville and Mari-Mar Industries of Port Trevorton, Pennsylvania. The two models of airboats evaluated were the Hurricane Aircat and the Susquehanna Skimmer.
Each Aircat and Skimmer cost about $6,000 each in 1964 (equivalent to about $49,000 in 2018).
The Army finished its evaluation by the end of 1965. The Aircat was found to be more durable, maneuverable, and have greater obstacle crossing capabilities than the Skimmer, although the Skimmer outperformed the Aircat in deep water. As such, the Army opted to begin purchasing Aircats in early 1966.
Design
The Hurricane Aircat had a rectangular hull long with beam. The draft varied with speed but was no more than . At top speed, the Aircat could draw as little as a single inch () of water. The hull was made from five layers of molded fiberglass and was semi-catamaran fore and flat-bottomed aft. This unique hull shape helped the Aircat surmount higher obstacles.
The Aircat was powered by a 4-cylinder Lycoming O-360 aircraft engine providing . The engine was hooked up to a diameter aerial propeller. The propeller blades were made from wood and tipped with bronze, which sometimes caused a problem, as three propellers failed during the evaluation period when the wood rotted and the bronze tips were separated by centrifugal force. Steering was provided by a stick controlling two air rudders aft of the propeller and propeller guard. Counting crew and passengers, the Aircat could carry payloads of up to .