r. William Bertelsen was working as a physician in a rural part of the U.S. in the 1950s and had patients who usually lived at the ends of long, unpaved roads. His automobile would often times get stuck in the mud when it was raining, and transporting sick and injured patients over extremely rough dirt roads was uncomfortable at best, and sometimes dangerous. He decided he needed a better mode of transportation.
Bertelsen's background in engineering gave him the tools required to come up with the idea of a hover-car, or ground effect machine. Fans in the vehicle force air through ducts to create a cushion of air between the vehicle and the ground. The vehicle can then glide about 6 inches above the roadway -- or indeed any surface -- and provide a smooth ride without danger of getting stuck in mud, snow, or ditches.
GO TO GALLERY
Learn more about Dr. Bertelsen and his inventions from Aeromobile.com.