Sixth Boro Hydrofoil 2

Today near Meadow Lake there’s a convergence of dragons . . . similar to but maybe bigger than the one I documented here five years ago.

A half century ago, that lake was the site of the World’s Fair.  And the three images that follow are stills clipped from a short video called Sinclair (as in the oil company today subsumed by Arco) at the World’s Fair, which today we might call an infomercial.   Thanks to all your comments–here and via email–that lead me to conclude that the hydrofoil era in the sixth boro was quite short.   Looking at these fotos, I wonder if any reader here was among the 100,000 passengers transported in the summer of 1964, if any fotos out there could be shared, and

what this “driver” did after hulls receded back into the water for good.   Thirteen boats–maybe unfortunately named–operated in the sixth boro!  Where did they dock?  Who maintained them?

Here’s an intriguing eBay foto, which I’ll not bid on.   Boeing seems to have built a number of hydrofoils–as the Boeing 929.  Of those still operating, most are in Eastern Asia, including these “Seven Islands” boats that once–about a decade ago–tried to establish a run between Florida and the Bahamas.   Seven Islands features an up-to-date crew blog–only in Japanese–that has interesting fotos.  Here and here is info on a hydrofoil operating on the black Sea out of Bulgaria.

Here’s where I’ll leave this until I find out more.

Meanwhile, if I get all my work done today, I may go see the dragons tomorrow.