
The skirt on a River Rover Hovercraft collects air from a special fan and the pressure in that air lifts the hovercraft up. It sounds simple but in order for the hovercraft to glide along some of that air has to escape and the Skirt Fingers perform really important job. They make sure that the skirt can adjust to the shape of the ground or water the hovercraft is travelling over – minimising the amount of air that escapes, whilst also evenly distributing it so that there is air lubrication everywhere and the craft just slides along. It doesn’t matter what the craft is going over – weeds, reeds, mud, ice, rapids, sandbanks or football pitches, the skirt automatically adjusts to be just the right shape.