Steve Jarvis (left), William Walter (bio, history) (seated), and Tom Johnson (right) record a moment in history for their groundbreaking company, Hybricraft, Inc. (legacy), in this 1992 photo.  Not only did Tom have a hand in the fabrication and assembly of critical finished components for this eight-foot diameter proof-of-concept (POC) machine, he actually taxi-tested, operated, modified, and maintained the vehicle for several years.  Tom was the first onboard pilot to hover a vehicle conceived by Bill Walter, and returned to the cockpit repeatedly to examine its operation in ground effect (IGE) at Byron Airport.

During his term as Chief Engineer for their company’s multi-year, privately funded, research and development effort, Tom co-patented several important innovations with Bill.  During the 1990s, several seemingly unrelated technologies emerged, enabling additional developments in HybriCraft™ (technology, markets) evolution.  Today’s HybriCraft exhibit myriad benefits from faster, lighter, and smaller microelectronics, advances with composites, computer-assisted design, and computational fluid dynamics. Remember that these and many other luxuries simply were not available almost twenty years ago or were not economically viable for a privately funded startup.

Whatever your need is, Contact us today!

Back to Moments in History >