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Our modern workshop is ideally located on the banks of the Logan River at Alberton, mid-way between Brisbane and the Gold Coast, Queensland, to allow onsite testing of our hovercrafts. We have a dedicated team of professional engineers including CAD/CAM operators, solid modeling specialists, class A surfacing specialists, mould-making specialists, manufacturing engineers, laminators and accountants. We also have a network of expert technical specialists to draw upon as required. Our design office has five workstations and uses AutoCAD for 2D drawings and Rhino/Imageware for surface modeling. Designers also use Pro-Engineer Wildfire parametric solid modeling software to give them a competitive advantage in accurately modeling new designs.

AirLift Hovercraft is an industry leader in relation to new designs and concepts. The team draws on its experience and technology to take advantage of new manufacturing technologies available. They also incorporate feedback gained from many thousands of hours of commercial operations achieved in earlier designs.

Manufacturing Facilities

Airlift Hovercraft is situated on a 3.2 hectare block of land and has a workshop floor space of 1200sqm and office space of 144sqm. We have direct river and ocean access which allows testing of new hovercraft. It also means we can deliver products by water to the Port of Brisbane, where they can be shipped to any part of the world. The site is mid-way between Brisbane (to the north) and the Gold Coast (to the south) providing access to the inner city, international airport and the famous Gold Coast tourist beaches.

Most manufacturing work is performed in-house. For specialist work we have a reliable network of contractors. Our facilities are in a quiet and secure location which is ideally suited to our development activities. We have low overheads that allow us to produce products economically and to move quickly to keep up with modern trends in design and manufacturing.

All composite tooling is manufactured in-house using a mix of CNC cut plugs and hand finishing methods with best quality ‘zero-shrink’ tooling resins. Our composite parts are moulded by a mixture of hand laminating, resin infusion, vacuum bonding and RTM-light methods. We have in-house welding and fabricating facilities for all metal types.

We also have our own CNC router capable to machine soft materials and aluminium parts. This is directly linked to our design office computers and will enhance our ability for fast turnaround of complex 3D surfaces for production parts and new moulds.

We can also supply complete skirting systems in Hypalon, Neoprene, Urethane or PVC, all accurately CNC cut and in the cases of Urethane and PVC, Radio Frequency welded into finished strong components. We build our own propellers and lift fans. The propellers are available in either laminated timber with fixed pitch or carbon/epoxy laminate with adjustable pitch.

All of our designs can be completely built and delivered from our Alberton workshop and some newer designs are capable of being exported as complete kit sets for finishing at the customer’s location. For these designs the mechanical, electrical and other subsystems can be supplied in C.K.D. or kit-set form according to the needs of the customer.

Our designs have a considerable performance and style margin over our competitors and we are continuing to lead the way with the implementation of many new technologies into the hovercraft industry.

Our move towards computer-based, solid-modeling design methods, ‘class A’ surfaces on moulds and 3D CNC cutting of moulds and production parts and for our new designs gives us a competitive edge in global markets.