[CanRay]

LAVs cap out at about 5-6 meters above the ground.

If you have enough speed, you can probably push them higher for a short while, for instance to go over a police blockage or a hedge or something.

... that's one hell of a police blockage.  6m = almost 20 feet.  A two-story police blockage ... ?  And that ain't no hedge, that's a damn tree.

So, Speed Racer and Michael Knight aren't going to have problems getting over the police blockade.

The Duke Boys might need some help, however.  But there's usually a convenient jump available for them. 

[Belker]

LAVs in Shadworun were stolen from lovingly inspired by SF author Walter Jon Williams' 1986 book Hardwired, from which we also got riggers and the old cybersnake weapon implant. He definitely had skillsofts in there too, but I'm not sure if the idea originated with him. Wanna know where the cross-country smugglers through a somewhat balkanized US came from? Look no further.

Hardwired is definitely recommended reading: it's a classic but lesser-known pillar of the cyberpunk canon. You can grab it in e-book form from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Smashwords, and I think it might still be available in print.

[Mantis]

Yup. Loved that book. I think his were more like beefed up hovercraft from what I remember but whatever. That's where they came from.

[Hellion]

LAVs cap out at about 5-6 meters above the ground.

If you have enough speed, you can probably push them higher for a short while, for instance to go over a police blockage or a hedge or something.

... that's one hell of a police blockage.  6m = almost 20 feet.  A two-story police blockage ... ?  And that ain't no hedge, that's a damn tree.

Heavly Armoured & Armed Vehicle needs to fly above these sort of blockages ?? Spin up the main gun and fire for effect or just push the throttle to maximum and call out "fuck the iceberg full steam ahead" lol

[Belker]

Well, sometimes you can't shoot through or push through obstacles. Having spent four years of my life driving and crewing real armored vehicles, trust me on this.

Besides, what rigger worth his or her salt wouldn't want to make their panzer pull a General Lee?

[Hellion]

My rigger, he enjoys explosions, plus he can't afford a LAV fitted out exactly how he likes it, plus cruising around in an armoured Tata Hotspur is a shitload more fun and easier to hide than a flying armoured brick (also a hell of a lot easier to pull a general lee in)

[Tzeentch]

The ground effect from a vehicle as small as a LAV (especially if the art is accurate) would be minimal. Imagine them as wingless Harriers and you're probably on the right track.

It's been a while since I read Hardwired, but in the CP2013 sourcebook WJW himself wrote the panzers look more like a Hammer's Slammers type of hovercraft complete with skirts. I might have to double-check the art but that's what I recall.

(Point of note, Shadowrun LAVs were originally Panzers, then WJW got all mad, then they changed it to Thunderbirds. Guess they dropped that nomenclature.)

BTW: That Mi-24 in the GIF posted earlier isn't actually gliding, the camera is synced with the propeller rate so it looks like they are not moving.

[Mantis]

Yeah, I know. That's why I posted it. Looks funny.

[GiraffeShaman]

He definitely had skillsofts in there too, but I'm not sure if the idea originated with him.

Gibson had skillsofts earlier, but they were called microsofts. Oddly, they didn't play as major a role as other implants did, such as wired reflexes, cyberspurs, and cybereyes did. At least not in the Sprawl Trilogy, which is the first 3 books. I'm not sure what role they played in later books as I haven't read them in a long time.