Capt. Craig's World

Infinity, AirFish, and AquaBat.

In 1990 something, I met an incredible person named Harry Schoell.  He is a self taught naval architect who has designed some of the most advanced hulls and boats there are.  He was building a high speed hull he called the Duo Delta Conic.   He built a 57 foot "Infinity" with conventional 12-V-92 Detroit Diesels that ran over 60 miles per hour.  She was not a race boat but a fully found (every thing in it) yacht and I fell in love with her.  He got a certificate from GM stating that this was the first boat to ever run over 50 with these engines.  She was a no-brainer to run and when the seas got to rough for the deep-vees, we were still having fun.  Oh those Boat Show demos, Offshore Powerboat Races, Poker Runs, and, Bimini for lunch, etc., major fun.

While working with Harry in 1991, some friends of my father-in-law's came over from Germany with a new ground effect boat called the "AirFish".  They wanted to demonstrate it at the Miami Boat Show.  They needed a place to assemble and test so we took in to a marina and played.  Brownie referred to it as the flying lawn chair because it seemed to be built with all that technology.  It finally flew and we were the hit of the show.  I thought it was a bit scary!  Especially when we flew out of ground effect.  I remember back in the early 60's when my father-in-law Dr. Alexander Lippisch built the first one, the X-112 on the right, flown by Harvey Hop. It was a lot more stabile.  Dr. Lippisch invented the "Tailess Delta Glider" in 1929 and the design exists today as the Space Shuttle.

Harry Schoell, Sergie Sikorsky (Igors' grandson) and I decided to build one we called the "AquaBat".  Ours was to be a total ground effect boat and we took out all the "flying"  properties. We used the lifting shape on the bottom, times two.  We towed it and it worked, but we never got an engine to perform before we lost our funding and the project was abandoned.  Another great failed opportunity.

"I'm flying, I'm flying!"