[kach22i]

UPDATE: 04/18/07

Personal hovercraft with stairway climbing
United States Patent 6695084
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/6695084.html

A personal transportation apparatus has a frame defining a surface for supporting a load, and a plurality of air-cushion cells mounted to the frame and depending from a lower side thereof, the air-cushion cells each having a changeable height to accommodate variations in an underlying terrain during a translation of the frame over the terrain. A pressure source is mounted to the frame and is operatively connected to the air-cushion cells for supplying air under pressure to the cells, thereby generating an air-cushion support for the frame. An elevation mechanism is mounted to the frame for lifting the frame from one step to a next higher step of a stairway so that the frame ascends the stairway from a lowermost step to an uppermost step of the stairway.