Hovercraft



A hovercraft is a type of aircraft used in Panem mainly by the Capitol, but is later also used by members of the rebellion. They serve a variety of roles from supporting the Hunger Games to transportation and combat.

Design
A hovercraft may be equipped with a large claw for lifting or grabbing, harpoons attached to cables, and nets. They have also been seen catching people by sucking them upwards using some kind of force field. This same force field is used to hold someone in place when they are about to board the hovercraft via its ladder, which is then retracted. This is also used to keep tributes immobilized when a tracker is injected into their forearms. However, in The Hunger Games film the tributes are instead injected with the trackers while they are seated and strapped in inside the cargo bay.

Hovercrafts are equipped with some form of ability, since they are often described as "materializing". When Katniss Everdeen visited District 12 after its, she mentions that "at least a dozen invisible hovercraft are circling overhead for my protection..." They are also fairly quiet, not making a sound, which allows them to appear without warning. However in the film adaptation the hovercrafts are much noisier, therefore sighted from far off.

The Hunger Games
Prior to the beginning of the Hunger Games a hovercraft is used to transport each individual tribute with their stylist to their respective Launch Room. Hovercraft windows are closed to prevent tributes from obtaining an aerial view of the arena. Once the Games get underway, a hovercraft carrying a giant screen displays the nightly recaps of who died that day. As soon as a tribute's death is confirmed their body is recovered by hovercraft along with any weapons lodged in the body or held by the corpse, permanently removing these from the arena. They also drop gifts by parachute that were bought for the tributes with the money from their sponsors and chosen by their mentor. Since the gifts can appear very quickly, this suggests that hovercraft are constantly shadowing the tributes throughout the Games. Once a victor is declared they are picked up by hovercraft and returned to the Training Center. This hovercraft is equipped with an operating room and carries a medical team to provide immediate medical care and treat serious injuries that the victors may have sustained.

In the movie, a single hovercraft transports all of the tributes to the arena at once. Hovercrafts are not seen removing bodies from the arena.

During the 75th Hunger Games Katniss, Beetee, and Finnick Odair were rescued by hovercraft after the force field surrounding the arena was destroyed. They were taken by a roundabout way to District 13.

Combat
Hovercrafts fulfill many combat functions. They are usually piloted and controlled by the Peacekeepers and military to keep the districts in line or to catch runaways and enemies of the Capitol, an example of was the capture of Lavinia. Her companion, an unnamed boy was killed. They have also been used as transports and as bombers.

During the First Rebellion about 75 years before the start of the series the rebels of District 13 captured some Capitol hovercrafts and used these as the nucleus for their own fleet, constructing new hovercrafts and upgrading the older models. The fleet was stationed in the Hangar and later deployed during the second rebellion. During the uprising in District 8 that began on the night that Peeta Mellark proposed to Katniss, hovercrafts were used to suppress the rebels by bombing their strongholds.

Transportation
The Capitol, though using trains as their main form of inter-district transport, also use hovercraft to travel long distances, as did the rebels later. They are also used to ferry cargo.

Trivia

 * According to Katniss, the entire forest goes silent when a hovercraft is about to come. Right before it appears, a mockingjay lets out a certain high pitched tune.
 * In the hovercraft ride to the arena, Cato is the only tribute leaning foreward while the others are all leaning back on their chair.