About

Barry Palmer, the original designer, is a graduate in Mechanical Engineering from U.C. Berkeley. In the early 60’s he began designing and flying flexible wing hang gliders, what would be the very start of the modern hang gliding movement.  He designed, built and test flew snowmobile engined aircraft he called “ultra-light” (as registered with the FAA in the Experimental Category) in 1967, at the very start of the Ultralight aircraft movement.  He has been plying the waters of (mainly) Florida and Puget Sound country in airboats and sevs of his design over the past 25 years, while serving as a staff engineer in aerospace, working on projects from rocket engines to spacecraft components and acoustics).  Today he is retired and lives in Monroe, WA.

Amphibious Marine, Inc. took over his hovercraft kits business in 2008.

Technical Data

Now, if one wants more reading on Sevtec craft all one has to do is “Google” up and click on the “groups” button and ask for Sevtec, or alt.rec.hovercraft.Sevtec or other things and just about anything will come up, including some technology discussions, as well as catfights and whatever usually goes on in newsgroups.

This paper, published in the Canadian 1984 International Conference on Air Cushion Technology, Sept 25, 26, 27, at Vancouver, BC may be old, but the numbers are just as valid today. A systems approach was taken to compare the Sevtec design philosophy directly to the design of large surface skimmers (hovercraft) with some surprising results. (A wait may be required for download for dialup.)