kids encyclopedia robot

Hydrofoil facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

A hydrofoil is a special kind of boat. It has underwater wings, much like an airplane's wings. These wings help the boat lift its main body, called the hull, out of the water.

How Hydrofoils Work

When a hydrofoil speeds up, its underwater wings create lift. This lift pushes the boat's hull out of the water. When this happens, the boat is "foilborne." By lifting out of the water, less of the boat touches the surface. This greatly reduces "drag," which is the force that slows a boat down. Less drag means the hydrofoil can travel much faster and more smoothly than a regular boat.


Images for kids

  • 20091105-TurboJET Urzela

    A Boeing Jetfoil

  • GIANNI 672

    The Italian hydrofoil Gianni M, the largest hydrofoil in the world.

  • Forlanini Idroplano-Forlani Hydrofoil 1910

    Forlanini's hydrofoil over Lake Maggiore, 1906

  • Bell HD-4

    Alexander Graham Bell's HD-4 on a test run, around 1919.

  • BTK pr.206M2

    A Project 206M "Shtorm" patrol fast attack craft hydrofoil of the Cuban Navy.

  • Sparviero DN-ST-84-03940

    Aerial view of the Italian Sparviero class hydrofoil-missile NIBBIO P-421 underway.

  • Aerial port beam view of USS Aquila (PHM-4) underway US Navy DN-SC-87-07089

    USS Aquila, a military hydrofoil. You can see the T-shaped foils just below the water.

  • HMCS Bras d'Or 03

    HMCS Bras d'Or, a military concept hydrofoil.

  • AC72 New Zealand Aotearoa San Francisco 01

    Team New Zealand's AC72 at the 2013 America's Cup, San Francisco Bay.

  • Draagvleugelboot Karla

    Ukrainian-built Voskhod on the North Sea Canal, the Netherlands.

  • 20091109-TurboJET Barca

    TurboJET's Barca Foilcat.

  • MV Flying Poseidon (1982) and Bodrum Lines Kometas at Rhodes with MV Costa Fortuna 11am 5-8-2011

    Flying Poseidon (built 1982) had just docked at Rhodes from Fethiye when the sister Kometas hydrofoil from Bodrum also arrived from Turkey in 2011.

  • Type "Kometa 120M" hydrofoil in Sevastopol, Crimea - 2020

    The first Kometa 120M, named Chaika (Seagull) after Valentina Tereshkova's callsign, docked in Sevastopol.

  • Lake Ladoga. Valaam. Meteor hydrofoil P7170383 2200

    Hydrofoil high-speed boat Meteor on Lake Ladoga, Russia.

  • Hydrofoil near Piraeus

    Passenger hydrofoil Flying Dolphin Zeus moving at high speed near Piraeus, Greece.

  • Peterhof hydrofoil (18272163540)

    Voskhod

  • Meteor boat on Neva Bay

    Meteor

  • Raketa-185 on Khimki Reservoir 6-jun-2014 02

    Raketa

  • Polesye-1 (ship, 1986, Gomel, 7)

    Polesye

  • Kizhi 06-2017 img30 Kometa-17 hydrofoil

    Kometa

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Hidroala para niños

kids search engine
All content from Kiddle encyclopedia articles (including the article images and facts) can be freely used under Attribution-ShareAlike license, unless stated otherwise. Cite this article:
Hydrofoil Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.