Also, despite getting just 1/10th of a mile per gallon, and yes, that’s ten gallons per mile, the LARC-LX was far more efficient than the massive gas turbine-powered hovercrafts that replaced it. The huge LACV-30 hovercrafts burned an average of 260 gallons per hour, as compared to just 38 for the LARC-LX, according to mastermarinesurveyor.com. The Army also liked how versatile they were, in fact, they still had 36 of them in 1979, well after the introduction of the LACV-30. In a report, the Army Materiel Systems Analysis Activity was quoted as saying “despite its shortcomings in speed, the LARC-LX has no major deficiencies and is probably the most versatile literate vessel in the current inventory.”
The Army also liked that it didn’t kick up any dust as the hovercraft did, could climb steeper gradients, and the fact that it had four engines instead of just two, made it more reliable. Indeed, the LARC-LX could still function if half of its engines were out of operation.
However, despite being reliable, versatile machines, they were officially put out of action in Oct. 2001. The story of the military’s use of them ends here, but happily, the story of the LARC-LX in civilian hands is still ongoing to this day. You can see one delivering a cement truck to a town on Long Island below.