Bicycle Hydrofoil - "Perhaps" ~1956

Wouldn't it be fun to design and build a one-person hydrofoil craft that was constructed using any old bicycle frame and some obsolete windtunnel test-airfoils. To provide forces and moments just like a bike riding on any hard surface we have provided wings in place of front and back wheels, although they are fastened on the end of streamlined struts somewhat longer than the diameter of the bicycle's wheel. And where the rubber would meet the road for a bicycle, there are shot-stubby vertical wings located just above the main foils to provide the required side force. The overall configuration is a canard (somewhat similar to the Wright Flier).

To avoid having to optimize most available engineering parameters, human power had been abandoned, and an extended shaft outboard of 4 hp or so has been added. At-rest-flotation is accommodated with a box-like platform constructed of 1/8" marine plywood, reinforced at the pilot's station with another layer of 1/8" plywood. The seams are covered with fiber glass and the fiberglass resin applied to everything to make it water tight.

The forward wing area is approximately 1.3 square feet, and the rear is somewhat larger, about 2 ft² with the rear span 3.7ft, and front, 3.2 ft, respectively. Since water is almost 800 times as heavy as air a total wing area of 3.3 ft² will permit takeoff at about 6 mph.

The outboard must be provided with a mandatory dead-man's switch to shut it down should the pilot suddenly find himself overboard. The throttle controls the speed while direction and "altitude" are controlled by the handlebars. The altitude is determined by the up or down motion of the handlegrips, with the handlebars pivoting about their forward attachment point connected to a pushrod that varies the angle of attack of the front wing.

The name was an easy choice since critics of the design before flight testing said that PERHAPS it would not fly, while the designer claimed that PERHAPS it would., and it does perform admirably. A new pilot with bicycle experience can run reliably after twenty minutes or so of learning to hold the altitude within reasonable limits.