Revolutionary Hovercraft at Revcor

The Revolutionary
Winter Edition 2004

By Archie Eschborn VP Sales & Marketing Revcor Revolutionary Air Flow

Revcor Hovercraft Photo Gallery

Earlier last year John Reichwein and I were discussing various marketing and branding ideas that would benefit Revcor and have a big impact for us without costing a lot of money. John had mentioned seeing a hovercraft going across Lake Delavan and he thought that may be a good thing to investigate. After all, a hovercraft is nothing more than a big air movement device or a motorized blower package.

I asked John to give me a few weeks to investigate the idea and contact several hovercraft manufacturers to see if it made sense to implement this idea into a marketing and branding concept.

After some research, I contacted Neoteric Hovercraft, who seemed to have the most technologically advanced hovercraft on the market. I spoke with their president, Chris Fitzgerald, who thought there was some good potential for both companies. Chris agreed to bring a hovercraft to Revcor and meet with John Reichwein and myself to demonstrate the hovercraft for use.

In April we were on the banks of the Fox River watching John and Chris racing 40 mph at 6 inches above the water. We were wearing 2-way communications devices so we could hear Chris giving John flight instructions as John took over the controls.

With a watchful instructor making sure the hovercraft would not nosedive into the cold waters of the river, John successfully flew downriver for a quarter mile solo. Mark Stuttle from accounting also got a ride and never dreamed that upon arriving at work that day would have been selected to get a test ride in a hovercraft.

The hovercraft was indeed a concept of Revolutionary Air Flow and, as such, would fit well into our new culture of advanced airflow technology. Participating in the world of hovercraft would solidify the Revcor image of a progressive air movement technology company in the eyes of our customers. Further, since hovercraft require a propeller or fan in conjunction with a motor, we could continue our research into developing quieter fans to replace the existing noisy hovercraft fans. Improvement here could trickle down onto the technology we use in our HVAC products.

Additionally, we came up with the idea that Revcor would offer hovercraft training in our facility for our employees and customers. Our plan was to create our own training program and offer it to our customers who visit and after successful training we would award them a certificate and a picture of them seated in the cockpit with our Revcor instructor to hang on their office wall. So far, our customers have been excited about this prospect and anxious to hear about our Revcor hovercraft story as it unfolds.

In July of last year Revcor took the leap and purchased our first hovercraft, appropriately named Revolutionary Air One, a kind of tongue-in-cheek parody of Air Force One. Steve Colter from our sales department and myself were the fortunate ones who were able to pick it up from the Neoteric Hovercraft factory after an intensive 2-day pilot training program.

The beautiful red hovercraft emblazoned with our Revcor RAF logo looks very impressive and technology-laden. We have shown the craft to a few of our visiting customers who can't wait to come back to take the training.

In January we started our first training session with many of our Revcor personnel who made up the majority of the class of 25. Most departments were represented, especially manufacturing, sales, engineering, quality and maintenance. Class participants will have to wait until spring as the weather was not conducive to taking a spin.

The instruction was given by Chris Fitzgerald and was recorded by a court reporter and videotaped so we can create our own in-house training program. The first step will be to train the Revcor trainers and instructors so we can start to teach.

Stay tuned for the next Revcor Revolutionary Air One hovercraft update …