by Don Hatfield
from http://geek-news.mtv.com/



Lets be honest, hovercrafts are frikin awesome. Sure, they don’t brake very well and the turning radius clearly leaves a little to beg for, but they float on air and travel by land or sea. How could you not think hovercrafts are the coolest?

This concept was designed by 21-year old industrial design graduate Yuhan Zhang from China and I have to admit it’s probably the most badass looking hovercraft I’ve ever seen. She wanted to design a vehicle that could handle all of China’s terrain: ice, snow, dirt, water, hills, etc. To make it even better, it’s got official Volkswagen badges on it and has been appropriately named the Volkswagen Aqua. Head past the break for a bunch of pretty photos and more info.




The Volkswagen Aqua, like other hovercrafts, uses multiple motors. The primary engine, which just happens to be powered by a hydrogen fuel cell (AWESOME!), inflates the skirt and lifts the hovercraft just slightly off the ground. At the rear, the forward thrust and directional fans are each powered by individual electric motors making it a completely gasoline-free vehicle.





We just like how it looks. It reminds us of some futuristic spacecraft or even a landspeeder from Star Wars -- and you know how much we love Star Wars.


There is one little detail we’re not too sure about. You see the round hatch at the rear? Well, that’s the only door this thing has and it seems like it would be pretty impossible to look good crawling out of it.

Porsche ousts CEO, paving way for VW merger

Wendelin Wiedeking, chief executive for the last 16 years, is leaving the sports car maker.

STUTTGART (Reuters) -- Sports car maker Porsche conceded a months-long power struggle to mass-market rival Volkswagen by axing its chief executive and saying it would raise at least €5 billion in equity as the two prepared for a merger.

After an all-night meeting of its board of directors, Porsche said Wendelin Wiedeking, Germany's best-paid executive and its CEO for the past 16 years, along with finance chief Holger Haerter, would quit the group immediately.

Their hasty exit will be sweetened by payoffs of €50 million and €12.5 million, respectively.

Wiedeking, who had opposed selling Porsche to Volkswagen, which would have helped the company reduce the debt he had run up in a botched attempt to take over VW, will be succeeded by Porsche's production head Michael Macht, the board said in a statement early on Thursday.

The meeting of the non-executive directors, which include the Piech and Porsche families that between them control Porsche, approved Wiedeking's proposal to raise fresh equity -- either in cash or through a contribution in kind -- and endorsed talks to sell a stake to the Gulf state of Qatar.

"This should lay the foundations for the creation of an integrated automobile group consisting of Porsche SE and Volkswagen," Porsche said.

It was unclear from Porsche's statement who would contribute to the capital increase and whether it would be taken up by Qatar. A Porsche spokesman declined to comment further.

The board's unanimous approval signals that the powerful Porsche and Piech clans may be open to surrendering some of their influence at the maker of the 911 sports coupe.

Between them they control 100% of Porsche's voting shares and have resisted selling a stake to an outsider.

Joining forces

A source at Volkswagen, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters it was still open whether oil-rich Qatar would take a stake in the Porsche SE holding company or directly in Volkswagen, or in both groups.

The issue was due to be discussed by Volkswagen's own board of directors, which gathers for an extraordinary session on Thursday in Stuttgart, where Porsche's Zuffenhausen headquarters are based, rather than its own headquarters in Wolfsburg.

Volkswagen, Europe's biggest carmaker, declined to comment.

The moves came as Porsche enters the final stretch of negotiations with Volkswagen to create what both sides have called an "integrated" auto group, in which Porsche would essentially become the 10th brand in Volkswagen's sweeping automotive empire.

Porsche SE, the holding company that controls sports car maker Porsche AG, needs to bolster its finances after accumulating more than €10 billion in debt through its botched attempt to seize control of VW.

Porsche was forced to abandon attempts to win control over 75% of VW, leaving it with a stake of nearly 51%. The failed takeover attempt opened the door to Ferdinand Piech, VW's powerful chairman and himself a part-owner of Porsche, to turn the tables on Porsche.

The Porsche and Piech families had been at loggerheads for months over how to resolve the company's debt woes and the role VW would play. Piech has pushed for VW to take over Porsche, on condition that Porsche fixes its finances first.