Giant Hovercraft Retire After 30 Years Of Channel Crossings Giant Hovercraft Retire After 30 Years Of Channel Crossings Listen | Print By Thomas Geiger, dpa Sep 12, 2000 in Lifestyle Dover/Calais (dpa) - For 30 years riding on a cushion of air from the British port of Dover to Calais in France was one of the most spectacular ways of crossing the English Channel. But not for much longer. Shipping company Hoverspeed is cancelling its hovercraft crossings between the British port of Dover and Calais in France, saying the vessels are uncomfortable for passengers and too expensive to operate. The firm's "Princess Margaret" and "Princess Anne" vessels will make their last Channel crossings on October 1. They are the largest hovercraft in the world, 56 metres long and capable of carrying 360 passengers and 50 cars. The air-cushion vehicles went into service in 1968 and are the fastest seagoing vessels ever to cross the Channel.

It takes them just 35 minutes to make the journey from England to France at a speed of nearly 100 kilometres per hour - making them faster than the trains which use the Channel Tunnel. The quickest-ever Channel crossing by a hovercraft took just 22 minutes, according to the Virtual Hovercraft Museum at the Internet address . Hovercraft are a kind of seaplane. Propelled by powerful airscrews they ride over the surface of the water on a cushion of air contained within a rubber skirt. The air-cushion raises the ferry three metres in height, cancelling out friction. A hovercraft can navigate seamlessly from the water onto a tarmac car parks, where passengers and cars board and disembark. The Hoverspeed vessels are powered by four Rolls-Royce turbines each turning out 3,800 horsepower. They drive four giant propellers located on the ferry roof. The air-cushion principle was invented by Christopher Cockerell of Britain, who began his experiments 50 years ago with a hairdryer, kitchen scales and two coffee tins. The first Channel crossing by Hovercraft was in 1959. The trip took two hours.

The first hovercraft service began just a few years later, initially between Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight, and later on the English Channel, where six hovercraft were operating by the end of the 1970s. Hovercraft technology was even adopted by the military and a market also developed for smaller leisure craft used in competitions on lakes and soccer stadiums. The end of the hovercraft era has been dictated not by technology but by economics. Although Hoverspeed's flagships were lengthened by 20 metres 16 years ago, they do not offer enough space for passengers and cars. They are uncomfortably loud for passengers on the high seas. They are also expensive, said Hoverspeed spokesman Rolf Nielaender because they run on aviation spirit rather than the diesel fuel used by most ships. Hoverspeed is replacing its hovercraft with streamlined SeaCat vessels. They travel at only 70 kilometres an hour and take 50 minutes to cross the channel, but they do carry 600 passengers and 90 cars.

British holidaymakers will not have to bid a final farewell to their hovercraft since shipping line Hovertravel still operates two smaller hovercraft, each carrying 98 passengers, between Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight. BBC - The last flight of the Hovercraft out of Dover The last flight of the Hovercraft out of Dover The Princess Margaret's last ever trip to Calais was on Sunday 1 October 2000 It is 10 years since the final flight of a Hovercraft out of Dover. A hovercraft is a vessel which skims the water on a three foot cushion of air. When it reaches land it simply deflates that cushion and sits down. It needed no special ports or tying up and could cross the Channel in half an hour. It was simple and it was British. The world's first metal hovercraft crossed from Calais to Dover in two hours on 25 July 1959 with its inventor Sir Christopher Cockerel on board. The first two cross channel passenger services started in 1966 with a Hoverlloyd service from Pegwell Bay to Calais.

The flight crew from the summer of 1976 The two SRN6 craft called Swift and Sure were put into service and at 7.30am on 6 April 1966 Swift made the first crossing. On 14 June 1966 Townsend Car Ferries launched Britannia to cross from Dover but bad weather and technical problems saw that service withdrawn by July. The world's first hovercraft car ferry made its maiden trip from Dover to Boulogne on 11 June 1968 and crossed in 25 minutes reaching speeds of 50 knots. That year also saw the introduction of the first SRN4 craft which were powered by four Rolls Royce Proteus gas turbine engines. A new Hoverport at Western Docks in Dover was built in 1978 The Princess Margaret came into commercial service for Seaspeed and was officially named by royalty. The first summer trips cost just £3.50 for a single journey and £3 for a day round trip. One year later the Princess Anne came into operation. By 1971 there were 78 weekly flights from Dover to Boulogne and 88 from Pegwell Bay to Calais.

In 1978 the new Dover Hoverport at the Western Docks was put into service at a cost of £14 million and the newly stretched SRN4s were put into use to carry more cars and make the service more viable. At its peak, in 1982, the Hovercraft was carrying 2.5 million passengers and 400,000 cars in just six months but the site at Pegwell Bay was closed to commercial traffic and used only as a maintenance base. The only visible sign of the former Hoverport is a single propeller But in 1994 the Channel Tunnel opened and even though the Hovercraft was still the fastest way to cross from Kent to France, its days were numbered. On October 1st 2000, the last Hovercraft was brought up onto the beach outside the former Churchill Hotel in Dover at the spot where the first hovercraft had landed in 1959. Crew and enthusiasts had gathered and she flashed her lights and bowed her head to mark the end of an amazing reign at sea.

Bookmark with: Hovercraft end 30 years of cross-Channel journeys - Telegraph Hovercraft end 30 years of cross-Channel journeys By David Sapsted 12:00AM BST 25 Sep 2000 THE two hovercraft that have travelled between Dover and Calais for more than 30 years begin their final week in service today, forced into retirement by competition from the Channel Tunnel and passengers' demands for more luxury. Forced retirement: after 30 years service the last Hovercraft crossings will be completed next weekend Invented by Sir Christopher Cockerell, who died last year , and heralded in the 1960s along with Concorde as the brave new face of travel, the hovercraft make their final runs next weekend. Britain will then be left with only one scheduled passenger hovercraft service, between Southsea and the Isle of Wight. Sea Containers, the transport and leisure group, said it was "reluctantly" taking the Princess Margaret and Princess Anne out of service and putting them up for sale on the internet. A member of Hoverspeed's staff in Dover yesterday said: "They were ahead of their time but now they are beyond their time.

"But it will be sad to see them go. We'll be having a commemorative drink when the last flight leaves." The hovercraft remain the fastest commercial passenger-carrying vessels in operation. Capable of 60 knots, they can cross the Channel in 30 minutes, about an hour quicker than most ferries, but this competitive edge was dramatically undermined by the tunnel. Related Articles The crafts' limited capacity of 52 cars and the noisy, spartan and cramped passenger compartments also compared unfavourably to the facilities on conventional ferries. Tony Joseph, from Ealing, west London, said after returning from a motoring holiday in France: "It rattled so much I couldn't get my beer to my lips. I couldn't work out whether I was feeling seasick or airsick." For those who "flew" hovercraft, though, fonder memories linger. John Jardine, who piloted the craft for a decade, said: "A hovercraft is an arresting sight, coming across the sea with a shower of spray surrounding it like a halo. It was a thrill, but some days your heart was in your mouth when the weather was bad." Ferry Fantastic: S. R. N.

4 'Mountbatten Class' Hovercraft The Princess Anne & The Princess Margaret Registered with the Civil Aviation Authority as 'GH-2006', The Princess Margaret is captured in her original 'Mark I' configuration at Dover's first hoverport (situated at the Eastern Docks). The cars driving away in the foreground give a strong indication that this is a late 1960s/early 1970s scene. Photo: Ferry Fantastic Collection. British Rail opened the extraordinary first chapter in the evolution of the high speed car ferry when it ordered the world�s first ever vehicle and passenger carrying hovercraft from the factory of the British Hovercraft Corporation at Cowes, on the Isle of Wight. The subsidiary set up to operate the proposed fast ferry service between Dover and Boulogne was Seaspeed. The first hovercraft built to traverse the English Channel was the Saunders Row Nautical 1, a tiny vessel which made its historic �flight� between Dover and Calais in 1959. The S. R. N. (Saunders Roe Nautical) 1 was slow, fragile, and carried only her pilot.

She was merely a prototype which demonstrated how �air cushion� technology could be developed to offer an exciting new method of sea travel. She was designed by Christopher Cockerill, the inventor of the hovercraft, who probably would never have imagined how his original concept would evolve into a Cross-Channel phenomenon which lasted over three decades. The hovercraft is an amphibious vehicle which floats on a cushion of air contained by a rubber �skirt� fitted to the outside rim of the vessel�s superstructure. Manoeuvrability is achieved by propellers that are mounted on pylons. The propellers, in turn, drive internal fans that inflate the skirt in order to traverse surfaces on an �air cushion�. Additional control to direction of movement is aided by tail-end �fins�. Hovercraft do not require docking facilities and are exceptionally fast, travelling at well over twice the speed of conventional ships. Their pitfall is their very uncomfortable ride in rough sea conditions. British Rail made history by introducing the first S. R. N. 4 'Mountbatten Class' car carrying hovercraft, The Princess Margaret in June of 1968.

After extensive trials she took her inaugural commercial flight from the hoverport at Dover Eastern Docks to Boulogne on 1st August that year. There were inevitable �teething troubles� and adjustments were made to her skirt which was raised in height at her forward end. Pegwell Bay based rival, Hoverlloyd, took delivery of numbers 002 and 003 in the series, whilst 004 was ordered by Seaspeed for the 1969 season: She was named The Princess Anne and joined her sister at Dover where operations were expanded to include flights to Calais Hoverport. Initially it was expected that these hovercraft would only last five years as they were prototypes; the first car and passenger carrying hovercraft in the world. Ironically they were to become the only remaining such vessels in existence. During 1977 and 1978 The Princess Anne and The Princess Margaret were returned to The British Hovercraft Corporation (B. H. C.) at Cowes for lengthening to 'Mark III' or 'Super 4' proportions. This included the fitting of larger skirts and propellers.

They returned to service much bigger and more powerful, with a nearly 100% increase in vehicle and passenger capacity. After the formation of Hoverspeed in 1981, new diesel-powered hovercraft were promised, but never materialised. The future looked uncertain. Generally regarded as a very safe form of transport, the hovercraft were not immune from unfortunate incidents. The Princess Margaret seemed to suffer more than her fair share of mishaps. In October 1980 she was hit by a freak wave and sustained damage to her forward starboard superstructure. The following January she collided head on with The Prince of Wales Pier in Dover in thick fog. By far the worst calamity occurred in March 1985 when she was blown in high winds against the Southern Breakwater. A large chunk was knocked out of her starboard passenger cabin and of those that fell into the sea, four lost their lives. By 1992, the 'Super 4s' were the only hovercraft still in Cross-Channel service. The Seacat made a much heralded arrival, but could never match the superb speed of the hovercraft.

The Princess Anne broke a world record by crossing the Channel in just twenty two minutes in September 1995. But the cost of fuelling the hovercraft�s gas turbines was massive, and their continued operation was an expensive novelty. The 'noisy ladies' were retired on 1st October 2000 after over three decades of remarkable service and have since rested at The Hovercraft Museum at Lee-on-The Solent. It is hoped that at least one of these extraordinary vessels can be preserved. The Princess Margaret & The Princess Anne Builder: British Hovercraft Corporation, East Cowes, Isle of Wight, England. Yard numbers: 001, 004. Dimensions (length, breadth, depth): 39.7 x 23.7 x 2.4 metres. After lengthening: 56.4 x 23.7 x 2.4 metres. Gross tonnage: 200. After lengthening: 300. Engines: Four Rolls Royce Proteus gas turbines. Power: 15,200 B. H. P. Speed (knots): 60.

19.9.1977: Returned to Cowes for lengthening to Mark III status. 25.10.1981: Registered for Hoverspeed Limited, Dover. 30.3.1985: Collided with the Southern Breakwater, Dover. Four passengers killed. 1.10.2000: Hoverspeed hovercraft services withdrawn. Moved to the Hovercraft Museum at Lee-on-Solent. 8.8.1969: The Princess Anne entered service Dover/Boulogne. 21.10.1969: Christened by H. R. H. Princess Anne. 21.2.1977: Returned to Cowes for lengthening to Mark III status. 7.1978: Visited Oostende on trials. 25.10.1981: Registered for Hoverspeed Limited, Dover. 1.10.2000: Hoverspeed hovercraft services withdrawn. Moved to the Hovercraft Museum at Lee-on-Solent.

Sister vessel, The Princess Anne is found resting at Dover Hoverport on a damp and dreary day in the early 1980s. The formation of Hoverspeed saw the propellers of the S. R. N. 4s painted white with red flashes at the tips. This was a shortlived livery feature. The two stretched 'Mark III' craft were fitted with the world's largest propellers and were themselves the largest hovercraft in existence. Photo: Ferry Fantastic Collection. The Princess Anne is seen at full height on the pad at Calais, a formidable sight to behold. She is seen wearing the 'British Ferries' brand on her cockpit and tail end fins. This was during the era that Sea Containers owned Sealink U. K. and Hoverspeed; effectively competing against itself on the Dover Straits. Photo: Ferry Fantastic Collection. Competition for British Rails' Seaspeed venture came from Ramsgate-based Hoverlloyd. The privately owned Swedish firm had already initiated foot passenger services to Calais using small S. R. N. 6 hovercraft.

Having allowed Seaspeed to take the risk of experimenting with the first of the car carrying generation of hovercraft, the success of The Princess Margaret gave Hoverlloyd the confidence to go ahead with an order for two of its own. According to the B. B. C. 's 'Inside Out' programme Hoverlloyd ran a more glamourous operation; "In terms of enterprise, staff motivation and sheer sexiness, Hoverlloyd won hands down". The aptly named Swift and Sure were delivered within a few months of each other in 1969. Swift was named by Mrs. Mary Wilson, the wife of the then British Prime Minister. She inaugurated services to Calais from the newly constructed hoverport at Pegwell Bay, just South of Ramsgate. Swift reached speeds of up to one hundred knots on trials, but the operating maximum was limited to seventy knots. There followed two further S. R. N. 4 craft for Hoverlloyd in 1972 and 1977. However, the merger with Seaspeed saw Pegwell Bay closed to traffic at the end of 1982, after just thirteen years of use. All 'flights' transferred to a crowded hoverport at Dover Western Docks.

In 1983 Sure was ruthlessly taken to pieces for spares to keep her fleetmates maintained. Hoverspeed were later to regret this when they were short of capacity in the mid 1980s. Swift stayed in service until September 1991, by which time Seacats were now operating. During her working life, she completed over thirty thousand Channel crossings. She sat idle on the pad at Dover in the company of her other redundant sisters whilst a buyer was sought for them. No such luck. She incurred damage to her forward port superstructure when a 'Mark III' craft was accidentally reversed into her. Hoverspeed engineers performed some ingenious cosmetic repairs before she was donated to The Hovercraft Museum in June 1994. She had already been stripped of her propellers and any other useful parts, and therefore could not complete her last ever journey under her own power. She was towed to her final resting place. Sadly her structural condition deteriorated badly and the cost of her pitch at the H. M. S. Daedalus Site became too much for the charitable organisation to afford. She had to be broken up in 2004.

Swift & Sure 25.10.1981: Registered for Hoverspeed Limited, Dover. 11.10.1991: Laid up at Dover International Hoverport. 25.5.1994: Donated to The Hovercraft Museum at H. M. S. Daedalus, Lee-on-Solent. 3.6.1969: Sure delivered to Hoverlloyd Limited, Ramsgate. Entered service Ramsgate/Calais. 7.10.1970: Chartered for a special flight from London (Tower Pier) to Tilbury. 25.10.1981: Registered for Hoverspeed Limited, Dover. 1983: Dismantled for spare parts at Pegwell Bay International Hoverport. This time Sure is seen in 1982 - her second and final season of Hoverspeed service. Photo: � Calais Chamber of Commerce & Industry An aerial view of Swift approaching the French Coast in favourable sea conditions. This was during the short-lived period of Hoverspeed services from Dover and Ramsgate (Pegwell Bay).

Photo: Francois Dupiech Collection Sir Christopher GH-2008 Sir Christopher is shown during one of her �flights� of the Channel for Hoverspeed. The 'British Ferries' branding has been airbrushed on to the tail-end fins. In reality this logo also appeared on her cockpit too. It reverted back to 'HS' when Stena Line bought out sister company, Sealink British Ferries, in 1990. Photo: � Fotoflite After the success of Swift and Sure, Hoverlloyd augmented their service by ordering their third S. R. N. 4 hovercraft from the Cowes based factory of the British Hovercraft Corporation (subsequently inherited by British Aerospace). Named after her inventor, Sir Christopher Cockerill, Sir Christopher was delivered to Pegwell Bay in 1972. In September of that year Hoverlloyd began sending their three 'Mark I' craft back to their builder for widening to 'Mark II' standard. The two inner cabins on the car deck level were removed to provide additional car spaces and the passenger cabins were extended out to the periphery to make up for the lost space. The additional weight only made a marginal difference to the performance.

A tapered skirt was fitted retrospectively to all S. R. N. 4 craft as this was found to give a much better all round performance, particularly in rough weather, and it also improved visibility for passengers. Sir Christopher was part of the on-going party when operations in the combined Hoverspeed fleet were concentrated at Dover in 1983. However her future was bleak when hovercraft services were drastically scaled down to make way for the Seacat. Sir Christopher made her last crossings of the Channel in 1991 and the following years ensued the undignified process of her decay on the pad at Dover Hoverport. Being of outdated and expensive technology, Sir Christopher did not attract any buyers and therefore suffered a similar fate to her other 'Mark II' sisters, Sure and The Prince of Wales; being broken up for spare parts for the still operational 'Mark III' hovercraft. The process was painfully protracted, starting in 1994 and finally finishing in 1998 when the remains of her shell were cleared away.

Some attempt had been made to disguise the unedifying spectacle of her cannabilised hulk during the earlier stages of her demolition by updating the livery of her port side (which was in full view of hoverport traffic). Those who recognised the potential of the hovercraft, a marvellous British invention, were saddened to see how the opportunity to develop a new generation of more efficient diesel powered craft was passed up. The likes of Sir Christopher are never likely to be seen again on the Channel. Sir Christopher An aerial view of GH-2054 The Prince of Wales on a calm Channel. Photo: � Fotoflite This was the last one; the final British hovercraft ever built for Cross-Channel service. Although essentially a repeat of her earlier sisters, the five years that followed the delivery of Sir Christopher saw an amazing number of minor modifications incorporated into The Prince of Wales. The most visible difference was the extra window either side of her 'cockpit'. This would have gone unnoticed by the majority who ever saw her! She was first and only S. R. N. 4 delivered to the widened 'Mark II' specification, with a modest increase in vehicle and passenger capacity compared to the original 'Mark I' standard.

She made her maiden 'flight' in 1977 between Pegwell Bay and Calais for Hoverlloyd. Meanwhile, S. N. C. F. had invested in the construction of two hovercraft that same year to operate with Seaspeed. The first of the French triple-propeller craft was destroyed by fire whilst being fitted out. The second, Ing�nieur Jean Bertin, was a complete and utter technical failure and never saw regular service. The tried and tested model which The Prince of Wales was based on was old fashioned in appearance but reliable. Upon the inauguration of Seacat services from Dover in 1991, The Prince of Wales was retired at just thirteen years old. She languished at the hoverport for a considerable period before suffering a devastating electrical fire which effectively gutted half of her port side superstructure in April 1993. As no buyers had come forward previously, it was not considered worthwhile repairing her, so instead, like Sure a decade previously, she was broken up for spare parts. A sad end to a very short life. The Prince of Wales Hovercraft | Military Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia For the band, see Hovercraft (band) .

A hovercraft, also known as an air-cushion vehicle or ACV, is a craft capable of travelling over land, water, mud or ice and other surfaces both at speed and when stationary. Hovercraft are hybrid vessels operated by a pilot as an aircraft rather than a captain as a marine vessel. Hovercraft use blowers to produce a large volume of air below the hull that is slightly above atmospheric pressure. The pressure difference between the higher pressure air below the hull and lower pressure ambient air above it produces lift, which causes the hull to float above the running surface. For stability reasons, the air is typically blown through slots or holes around the outside of a disk or oval shaped platform, giving most hovercraft a characteristic rounded-rectangle shape. Typically this cushion is contained within a flexible "skirt", which allows the vehicle to travel over small obstructions without damage. A Lithuanian Coast Guard hovercraft with engine off and skirt deflated. The same hovercraft with engine on and skirt inflated. The first practical design for hovercraft derived from a British invention in the 1950s to 1960s.

They are now used throughout the world as specialised transports in disaster relief, coastguard, military and survey applications as well as for sport or passenger service. Very large versions have been used to transport hundreds of people and vehicles across the English Channel whilst others have military applications used to transport tanks, soldiers and large equipment in hostile environments and terrain. Although now a generic term for the type of craft, the name Hovercraft itself was a trademark owned by Saunders-Roe (later British Hovercraft Corporation (BHC), then Westland ), hence other manufacturers use of alternative names to describe the vehicles. Contents Edit There have been many attempts to understand the principles of high air pressure below hulls and wings. To a great extent, the majority of these can be termed "ground effect" or "water effect" vehicles rather than hovercraft. The principal difference is that a hovercraft can lift itself while still, whereas the majority of other designs require forward motion to create lift. These active-motion "surface effect vehicles" are known in specific cases as ekranoplan and hydrofoils. The first mention in the historical record of the concepts behind surface-effect vehicles that used the term hovering was by Swedish scientist Emanuel Swedenborg in 1716.

[1] In 1915 Austrian Dagobert Müller (1880 - 1956) built the world's first "water effect" vehicle. Shaped like a section of a large aerofoil (this creates a low pressure area above the wing much like an aircraft), the craft was propelled by four aero engines driving two submerged marine propellers, with a fifth engine that blew air under the front of the craft to increase the air pressure under it. Only when in motion could the craft trap air under the front, increasing lift. The vessel also required a depth of water to operate and could not transition to land or other surfaces. Designed as a fast torpedo boat , the Versuchsgleitboot had a top speed over 32 knots (59 km/h). It was thoroughly tested and even armed with torpedoes and machine guns for operation in the Adriatic. It never saw actual combat, however, and as the war progressed it was eventually scrapped due to lack of interest and perceived need, and its engines returned to the Air Force.

[2] The theoretical grounds for motion over an air layer were constructed by Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovskii in 1926 and 1927. [3] In 1929, Andrew Kucher of Ford began experimenting with the "Levapad" concept, metal disks with pressurized air blown through a hole in the center. Levapads do not offer stability on their own, several must be used together to support a load above them. Lacking a skirt, the pads had to remain very close to the running surface. He initially imagined these being used in place of casters and wheels in factories and warehouses where the concrete floors offered the smoothness required for operation. By the 1950s, Ford showed a number of toy models of cars using the system, but mainly proposed its use as a replacement for wheels on trains, with the Levapads running close to the surface of existing rails. [4] In 1931, Finnish aero engineer Toivo J. Kaario began designing a developed version of a vessel using an air cushion and built a prototype Pintaliitäjä (Surface Soarer), in 1937.

[5] Kaario's design included the modern features of a lift engine blowing air into a flexible envelope for lift. Kaario never received funding to build his design, however.[ citation needed ] Kaario's efforts were followed closely in the Soviet Union by Vladimir Levkov, who returned to the solid-sided design of the Versuchsgleitboot. Levkov designed and built a number of similar craft during the 1930s, and his L-5 fast-attack boat reached 70 knots (130 km/h) in testing. However, the start of World War II put an end to Levkov's development work. [6] During World War II , an engineer in the United States of America, Charles Fletcher, invented a walled air cushion vehicle. Because the project was classified by the U.S. government, Fletcher could not file a patent. [7] Post-war progress Edit John Frost at work in his Avro Canada laboratory. The silver disk is being lifted into the air by a jet of air from the red pipe, blowing down on top. The curved shape directs the air around the outside to produce stable lift.

When the war ended a number of groups took up development of low friction water vessels including hydrofoil and water effects. The Soviets, specifically Rostislav Alexeyev and his Central Hydrofoil Design Bureau, returned to the ground effect design pioneered by Levkov, and produced a wide variety of such craft over the next 30 years. However, Alexeyev's systems were always experimental, and never entered production. Famous among these is the Lun-class ekranoplan , a massive missile-firing boat powered by eight jet engines. Unlike Levkov's design, however, these boats generally lacked a lift engine, using power and short wings to create lift at speed. This represented a unique evolution of craft but were also not classed as true hovercraft. In the 1950s and 1960s in Canada, John Carver Meadows Frost at Avro Canada started experimenting with the Coandă effect and noticed that he could produce a ring of airflow by blowing the air down over a convex surface. He originally intended this to produce VTOL lift, and then use the same basic effect to provide for high-speed, high-altitude flight.

This work led to the development of the Avrocar with the US Army , a design of much more modest performance more typical of a modern helicopter . In testing it proved incapable of flying more than a few feet off the ground and at speeds greater than about 45 km/h, and after a lengthy period of testing the program was abandoned in 1961. Christopher Cockerell Edit The idea of the modern hovercraft is most often associated with Sir Christopher Cockerell . Cockerell's group was the first to develop the use of an annular ring of air for maintaining the cushion, the first to develop a successful skirt, and the first to demonstrate a practical vehicle in continued use. Cockerell came across the key concept in his design when studying the ring of airflow when high-pressure air was blown into the annular area between two concentric tin cans, one coffee and the other from cat food. This produced a ring of airflow, as expected, but he noticed an unexpected benefit as well; the sheet of fast moving air presented a sort of physical barrier to the air on either side of it.

This effect, which he called the "momentum curtain", could be used to trap high-pressure air in the area inside the curtain, producing a high-pressure plenum that earlier examples had to build up with considerably more airflow. In theory, only a small amount of active airflow would be needed to create lift and much less than a design that relied only on the momentum of the air to provide lift, like a helicopter . In terms of power, a hovercraft would only need between one quarter to half of the power required by a helicopter. Cockerell built several models of his hovercraft design in the early 1950s, featuring an engine mounted to blow from the front of the craft into a space below it, combining both lift and propulsion. He demonstrated the model flying over many Whitehall carpets in front of various government experts and ministers, and the design was subsequently put on the secret list.

In spite of tireless efforts to arrange funding no branch of the military was interested, as he later joked, "The Navy said it was a plane not a boat; the Air Force said it was a boat not a plane; and the Army was 'plain not interested.'" [8] SR.N1 SR.N1 General Arrangement This lack of military interest meant that there was no reason to keep the concept secret, and it was declassified. Cockerell was finally able to convince the National Research Development Corporation to fund development of a full-scale model. In 1958 the NRDC placed a contract with Saunders-Roe for the development of what would become the SR.N1 , short for "Saunders-Roe, Nautical 1". The SR.N1 was powered by a 450 hp Alvis Leonides engine powering a vertical fan in the middle of the craft. In addition to providing the lift air, a portion of the airflow was bled off into two channels on either side of the craft, which could be directed to provide thrust. In normal operation this extra airflow was directed rearward for forward thrust, and blew over two large vertical rudders that provided directional control.

For low-speed manoeuvrability, the extra thrust could be directed fore or aft, differentially for rotation. SR.N1 made its first hover on 11 June 1959, and made its famed successful crossing of the English Channel on 25 July 1959. In December 1959, the Duke of Edinburgh visited Saunders-Roe at East Cowes and persuaded the chief test-pilot, Commander Peter Lamb, to allow him to take over the SR.N1's controls. He flew SR.N1 so fast that he was asked to slow down a little. On examination of the craft afterwards, it was found that she had been dished in the bow due to excessive speed, damage which was never allowed to be repaired, and was from then on affectionately referred to as the 'Royal Dent'. [9] Skirts and other improvements Edit Testing quickly demonstrated that the idea of using a single engine to provide air for both the lift curtain and forward flight required too many trade-offs. A Blackburn Marboré for forward thrust and two large vertical rudders for directional control were added, producing the SR.N1 Mk II. A further upgrade with the Armstrong Siddeley Viper produced the Mk III.

Further modifications, especially the addition of pointed nose and stern areas, produced the Mk IV. Although the SR.N1 was successful as a testbed, the design hovered too close to the surface to be practical; at 9 inches (23 cm)[ citation needed ] even small waves would hit the bow. The solution was offered by Cecil Latimer-Needham , following a suggestion made by his business partner Arthur Ord-Hume . In 1958 he suggested the use of two rings of rubber to produce a double-walled extension of the vents in the lower fuselage. When air was blown into the space between the sheets it exited the bottom of the skirt in the same way it formerly exited the bottom of the fuselage, re-creating the same momentum curtain, but this time at some distance from the bottom of the craft.

Latimer-Needham and Cockerell devised a 4 feet (1.2 m) high skirt design which was fitted to the SR.N1 to produce the Mk V, [10] displaying hugely improved performance, with the ability to climb over obstacles almost as high as the skirt.[ citation needed ] In October 1961, Latimer-Needham sold his skirt patents to Westland , who had recently taken over Saunders Roe's interest in the hovercraft. Experiments with the skirt design demonstrated a problem; it was originally expected that pressure applied to the outside of the skirt would bend it inward, and the now-displaced airflow would cause it to pop back out. What actually happened is that the slight narrowing of the distance between the walls resulted in less airflow, which in turn led to more air loss under that section of the skirt. The fuselage above this area would drop due to the loss of lift at that point, and this led to further pressure on the skirt. After considerable experimentation, Denys Bliss at Hovercraft Development Ltd. found the solution to this problem.

Instead of using two separate rubber sheets to form the skirt, a single sheet of rubber was bent into a U shape to provide both sides, with slots cut into the bottom of the U forming the annular vent. When deforming pressure was applied to the outside of this design, air pressure in the rest of the skirt forced the inner wall to move in as well, keeping the channel open. Although there was some deformation of the curtain, the airflow within the skirt was maintained and the lift remained relatively steady. Over time, this design evolved into individual extensions over the bottom of the slots in the skirt, known as "fingers". Passenger-carrying hovercraft, off shore from Ōita Airport Commercialisation Edit Through these improvements the hovercraft became an effective transport system for high-speed service on water and shallow land, leading to widespread developments for military vehicles, search and rescue, and commercial operations. By 1962 many UK aviation and ship building firms were working on hovercraft designs, including Saunders Roe/ Westland , Vickers-Armstrong, William Denny, Britten-Norman and Folland .

[11] Small-scale ferry service started as early as 1962 with the launch of the Vickers-Armstrong VA-3. With the introduction of the 254 passenger and 30 car carrying SR.N4 cross-Channel ferry by Hoverlloyd and Seaspeed in 1968, hovercraft had developed into useful commercial craft. Hovercraft in the Netherlands, newsreel from 1976 Another major pioneering effort of the early hovercraft era was carried out by Jean Bertin 's firm in France. Bertin was an advocate of the "multi-skirt" approach, which used a number of smaller cylindrical skirts instead of one large one in order to avoid the problems noted above. During the early 1960s he developed a series of prototype designs, which he called "terraplanes" if they were aimed for land use, and "naviplanes" for water. The best known of these designs was the N500 Naviplane , built for Seaspeed by the Société d'Etude et de Développement des Aéroglisseurs Marins (SEDAM).

The N500 could carry 400 passengers, 55 cars and 5 buses. It set a speed record between Boulogne to Dover of 74 kn (137 km/h). It was rejected by its operators who claimed it was unreliable. [12] Another discovery was that the total amount of air needed to lift the craft was a function of the roughness of the surface it traveled over. On flat surfaces, like pavement, the needed air pressure was so low that hovercraft were able to compete in energy terms with conventional systems like steel wheels. However, as the hovercraft lift system acted as both a lift and very effective suspension, it naturally lent itself to high-speed use where conventional suspension systems were considered too complex. This led to a variety of " hovertrain " proposals during the 1960s, including England's Tracked Hovercraft and France's Aérotrain . In the U.S., Rohr Inc. and Garrett both took out licenses to develop local versions of the Aérotrain. These designs competed with maglev systems in the high-speed arena, where their primary advantage was the very "low tech" tracks they needed.

On the downside, the air blowing dirt and trash out from under the trains presented a unique problem in stations, and interest in them waned in the 1970s. 1. Propellers 3. Fan 4. Flexible skirt By the early 1970s the basic concept had been well developed, and the hovercraft had found a number of niche roles where its combination of features were advantageous. Today they are found primarily in military use for amphibious operations, search and rescue vehicles in shallow water, and sporting vehicles. Design Edit Hovercraft can be powered by one or more engines. Small craft, such as the SR.N6 , usually have one engine with the drive split through a gearbox. On vehicles with several engines, one usually drives the fan (or impeller ), which is responsible for lifting the vehicle by forcing high pressure air under the craft. The air inflates the "skirt" under the vehicle, causing it to rise above the surface. Additional engines provide thrust in order to propel the craft.

Some hovercraft use ducting to allow one engine to perform both tasks by directing some of the air to the skirt, the rest of the air passing out of the back to push the craft forward.[ citation needed ] Uses Edit The British aircraft and marine engineering company Saunders-Roe built the first practical man-carrying hovercraft for the National Research Development Corporation , the SR.N1 , which carried out several test programmes in 1959 to 1961 (the first public demonstration was in 1959), including a cross-channel test run in July 1959 piloted by Peter ("Sheepy") Lamb, an ex-naval test pilot and the Chief Test Pilot at Saunders Roe. Christopher Cockerell was on board, and the flight took place on the 50th anniversary of Louis Blériot 's first aerial crossing. [13] The SR.N1 was powered by a single piston engine, driven by expelled air.

Demonstrated at the Farnborough Airshow in 1960, [13] it was shown that this simple craft could carry a load of up to 12 Marines with their equipment as well as the pilot and co-pilot with only a slight reduction in hover height proportional to the load carried. The SR.N1 did not have any skirt, using instead the peripheral air principle that Sir Christopher had patented. It was later found that the craft's hover height was improved by the addition of a skirt of flexible fabric or rubber around the hovering surface to contain the air. The skirt was an independent invention made by a Royal Navy officer, C.H. Latimer-Needham , who sold his idea to Westland (by then the parent of Saunders-Roe's helicopter and hovercraft interests), and who worked with Sir Christopher to develop the idea further. The first passenger-carrying hovercraft to enter service was the Vickers VA-3, which in the summer of 1962 carried passengers regularly along the north Wales Coast from Moreton, Merseyside , to Rhyl . It was powered by two turboprop aero-engines and driven by propellers.

[14] In Britain, the RNLI operate a small fleet of hovercraft lifeboats The Hovertravel service between the Isle of Wight and mainland England is currently the only public hovercraft service in the United Kingdom During the 1960s Saunders-Roe developed several larger designs which could carry passengers, including the SR.N2 , which operated across the Solent in 1962 and later the SR.N6 , which operated across the Solent from Southsea to Ryde on the Isle of Wight for many years. In 1963 the SR.N2 was used on an experimental service between Weston-super-Mare and Penarth under the aegis of P & A Campbell, the paddle steamer operators. Operations by Hovertravel commenced on July 24, 1965 using the SR.N6 which carried just 38 passengers. [13] Two 98 seat AP1-88 hovercraft were introduced on this route in 1983, and in 2007 these were joined by the first 130 seater BHT130 craft.

The AP1-88 and the BHT130 were notable as they were largely built by Hoverwork using shipbuilding techniques/materials (i.e. welded aluminium structure and diesel engines) rather than the aircraft techniques used to build the earlier craft built by Saunders-Roe / British Hovercraft Corporation . Over 20 million passengers had used the service as of 2004 – the service is still operating (2010) and is by far the longest, continuously operated hovercraft service. In 1966, two cross-channel passenger hovercraft services were inaugurated using SR.N6 hovercraft. Hoverlloyd ran services from Ramsgate Harbour, England, to Calais, France, and Townsend Ferries [ citation needed ] also started a service to Calais from Dover, which was soon superseded by that of Seaspeed .

As well as Saunders-Roe and Vickers (which combined in 1966 to form the British Hovercraft Corporation (BHC)), other commercial craft were developed during the 1960s in the UK by Cushioncraft (part of the Britten-Norman Group) and Hovermarine based at Woolston (the latter being 'Sidewall Hovercraft' , where the sides of the hull projected down into the water to trap the cushion of air with 'normal' hovercraft skirts at the bow and stern). One of these models, the HM-2, was used by Red Funnel between Southampton (near the Woolston Floating Bridge ) and Cowes. [15] A Hoverlloyd craft on the pad at Pegwell Bay Hoverport. Photo by George Garrigues, 1973 The world's first car-carrying hovercraft was made in 1968, the BHC Mountbatten class (SR.N4) models, each powered by four Bristol Proteus turboshaft engines. These were both used by rival operators Hoverlloyd and Seaspeed (joined to form Hoverspeed in 1981) to operate regular car and passenger carrying services across the English Channel.

Hoverlloyd operated from Ramsgate, where a special hoverport had been built at Pegwell Bay , to Calais. Seaspeed operated from Dover, England, to Calais and Boulogne in France. The first SR.N4 had a capacity of 254 passengers and 30 cars, and a top speed of 83 kn (154 km/h). The Channel crossing took around 30 minutes and was run rather like an airline with flight numbers. The later SR.N4 Mk.III had a capacity of 418 passengers and 60 cars to the Isle of Wight. These were later joined by the French-built SEDAM N500 Naviplane with a capacity of 385 passengers and 45 cars; only one entered service and was used intermittently for a few years on the cross-channel service until returned to SNCF in 1983. The service ceased in 2000 after 32 years, due to competition with traditional ferries, catamaran, the disappearance of duty-free shopping within the EU and the advancing age of the SR.N4 hovercraft and the opening of the Channel Tunnel .

The commercial success of hovercraft suffered from rapid rises in fuel prices during the late 1960s and 1970s, following conflict in the Middle East . Alternative over-water vehicles such as wave-piercing catamarans (marketed as the SeaCat in the UK until 2005) use less fuel and can perform most of the hovercraft's marine tasks. Although developed elsewhere in the world for both civil and military purposes, except for the Solent Ryde to Southsea crossing, hovercraft disappeared from the coastline of Britain until a range of Griffon Hovercraft were bought by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution . A volunteer fire department in Bavaria using a hovercraft to practice a rescue Civilian non-commercial Edit In Finland, small hovercrafts are widely used in maritime rescue and during the rasputitsa ("mud season") as archipelago liaison vehicles. In England, hovercraft of the Burnham-on-Sea Area Rescue Boat (BARB) are used to rescue people from thick mud in Bridgwater Bay . Avon Fire and Rescue Service became the first Local Authority fire service in the UK to operate a hovercraft.

It is used to rescue people from thick mud in the Weston-super-Mare area and during times of inland flooding. A Griffon rescue Hovercraft has been in use for a number of years with the Airport Fire Service at Dundee Airport in Scotland. It is used in the event of an aircraft ditching in the Tay estuary. Numerous fire departments around the U.S./Canadian Great Lakes operate hovercraft for water and ice rescues, often of ice fisherman stranded when ice breaks off from shore. In October 2008 The Red Cross commenced a flood-rescue service hovercraft based in Inverness, Scotland. [16] Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service received two flood-rescue hovercraft donated by Severn Trent Water following the 2007 UK floods . [17] Since 2006 hovercraft have been used in aid in Madagascar by HoverAid, an international NGO who use the hovercraft to reach the most remote places on the island. [18] The Scandinavian airline SAS used to charter an AP1-88 hovercraft for regular passengers between Copenhagen Airport , Denmark, and the SAS Hovercraft Terminal in Malmö, Sweden.

In 1998, the US Postal Service began using the British built Hoverwork AP1-88 to haul mail, freight, and passengers from Bethel, Alaska, to and from eight small villages along the Kuskokwim River. Bethel is far removed from the Alaska road system, thus making the hovercraft an attractive alternative to the air based delivery methods used prior to introduction of the hovercraft service. Hovercraft service is suspended for several weeks each year while the river is beginning to freeze to minimize damage to the river ice surface. The hovercraft is able to operate during the freeze-up period; however, this could potentially break the ice and create hazards for villagers using their snowmobiles along the river during the early winter. In 2006, Kvichak Marine Industries of Seattle USA built, under license, a cargo/passenger version of the Hoverwork BHT130 . Designated 'Suna-X', it is used as a high speed ferry for up to 47 passengers and 47,500 pounds of freight serving the remote Alaskan villages of King Cove and Cold Bay.

An experimental service was operated in Scotland across the Firth of Forth (between Kirkcaldy and Portobello, Edinburgh ), from 16 to 28 July 2007. Marketed as Forthfast, the service used a craft chartered from Hovertravel and achieved an 85% passenger load factor . As of 2015 [update] the possibility of establishing a permanent service is still under consideration. [19] Since the channel routes abandoned hovercraft, and pending any reintroduction on the Scottish route, the United Kingdom's only public hovercraft service is that operated by Hovertravel between Southsea (Portsmouth) and Ryde on the Isle of Wight. From the 1960s, several commercial lines were operated in Japan, without much success. In Japan the last commercial line had linked Ōita Airport and central Ōita but was shut down in October 2009. A U.S.

Navy Landing Craft Air Cushion, an example of a military hovercraft A Russian navy Landing Craft Zubr class , an example of a large armed military hovercraft Hovercraft are still manufactured in the UK near to where they were first conceived and tested and the Isle Of Wight. They can also be chartered for a wide variety of uses including inspections of shallow bed offshore wind farms and VIP or passenger use. A typical vessel would be a Tiger IV or a Griffon. They are light, fast, road transportable and very adaptable with the unique feature of minimising damage to environments. Military See also: Air-cushioned landing craft First applications of the hovercraft in military use was with the SR.N1 through SR.N6 craft built by Saunders-Roe in the Isle of Wight in the UK and used by the UK joint forces. To test the use of the hovercraft in military applications the UK set up the Interservice Hovercraft Trials Unit (IHTU) base at Lee-on-the-Solent (now the site of the Hovercraft Museum ). This unit carried out trials on the SR.N1 from Mk1 through Mk5 as well as testing the SR.N2 , SR.N3 , SR.N5 and SR.N6 craft.

Currently the Royal Marines use the Griffonhoverwork 2400TD hovercraft, the replacement for the Griffon 2000 TDX Class ACV as a tactical craft. The 2000 was deployed by the UK in Iraq. In the US, during the 1960s, Bell licenced and sold the Saunders-Roe SR.N5 as the Bell SK-5. They were deployed on trial to the Vietnam War by the United States Navy as PACV patrol craft in the Mekong Delta where their mobility and speed was unique. This was used in both the UK SR.N5 curved deck configuration and later with modified flat deck, gun turret and grenade launcher designated the 9255 PACV. The United States Army also experimented with the use of SR.N5 hovercraft in Vietnam. Three hovercraft with the flat deck configuration were deployed to Dong Tam in the Mekong delta region and later to Ben Luc. They saw action primarily in the Plain of Reeds. One was destroyed in early 1970 and another in August of that same year after which the unit was disbanded. The only remaining U.S.

Army SR.N5 hovercraft is currently on display in the Army Transport Museum in Virginia. Experience led to the proposed Bell SK-10 which was the basis for the LCAC-class air-cushioned landing craft now deployed by the U.S. and Japanese Navy. The Soviet Union was the world's largest developer of military hovercraft. Their designs range from the small Czilim class ACV , comparable to the SR.N6, to the monstrous Zubr class LCAC , the world's largest hovercraft. The Soviet Union was also one of the first nations to use a hovercraft, the Bora , as a guided missile corvette , though this craft possessed rigid, non-inflatable sides. With the fall of the Soviet Union most Soviet military hovercraft fell into disuse and disrepair. Only recently has the modern Russian Navy begun building new classes of military hovercraft. The Iranian Navy operates multiple British made [20] [21] and some Iranian produced hovercrafts. [22] [23] [24] The Tondar or Thunderbolt comes in varieties designed for combat and transportation. Iran has equipped the Tondar with mid-range missiles, machine guns and retrievable reconnaissance drones.

Currently they are used for water patrols and combat against drug smugglers. The Finnish Navy designed an experimental missile attack hovercraft class, Tuuli class hovercraft , in the late 1990s. The prototype of the class, Tuuli, was commissioned in 2000. It proved an extremely successful design for a littoral fast attack craft, but due to fiscal reasons and doctrinal change in the Navy, the hovercraft was soon withdrawn. The People's Army Navy of China operates the Jingsah II class LCAC . This troop and equipment carrying hovercraft is roughly the Chinese equivalent of the U.S. Navy LCAC . Recreational/sport Edit Small commercially manufactured, kit or plan-built hovercraft are increasingly being used for recreational purposes such as inland racing and cruising on inland lakes and rivers, marshy areas, estuaries and inshore coastal waters. [25] The Hovercraft Cruising Club [26] supports the use of hovercraft for cruising in coastal and inland waterways, lakes and lochs. The Hovercraft Club of Great Britain, founded in 1966, regularly organizes inland and coastal hovercraft race events at various venues across the United Kingdom.

[27] Single seater racing hovercraft In August 2010 the Hovercraft Club of Great Britain hosted the World Hovercraft Championships at Towcester Racecourse [28] The World Hovercraft Championships are run under the auspices of the World Hovercraft Federation. [29] Similar events are also held in Europe and the US. [30] [31] Other uses Edit A real benefit of air cushion vehicles in moving heavy loads over difficult terrain, such as swamps, was overlooked by the excitement of the British Government funding to develop high-speed hovercraft. It was not until the early 1970s that the technology was used for moving a modular marine barge with a dragline on board for use over soft reclaimed land. Mackace (Mackley Air Cushion Equipment), now known as Hovertrans, produced a number of successful Hoverbarges, such as the 250 ton payload “Sea Pearl” which operated in Abu Dhabi and the twin 160 ton payload "Yukon Princesses" which ferried trucks across the Yukon river to aid the pipeline build. Hoverbarges are still in operation today.

In 2006, Hovertrans (formed by the original managers of Mackace) launched a 330 ton payload drilling barge in the swamps of Suriname. The Hoverbarge technology is somewhat different from high-speed hovercraft, which has traditionally been constructed using aircraft technology. The initial concept of the air cushion barge has always been to provide a low-tech amphibious solution for accessing construction sites using typical equipment found in this area, such as diesel engines, ventilating fans, winches and marine equipment. The load to move a 200 ton payload ACV barge at 5 kn (9.3 km/h) would only be 5 tons. The skirt and air distribution design on the high-speed craft again is more complex as they have to cope with the air cushion being washed out by a wave and wave impact. The slow speed and large mono chamber of the hover barge actually helps reduce the effect of wave action giving a very smooth ride. The low pull force enabled a helicopter to pull a hoverbarge across snow, ice and water in 1982.

[32] [33] Hovertrains Edit Several attempts have been made to adopt air cushion technology for use in fixed track systems, in order to utilize the lower frictional forces for delivering high speeds. The most advanced example of this was the Aérotrain , an experimental high speed hovertrain built and operated in France between 1965 and 1977. The project was abandoned in 1977 due to lack of funding, the death of its lead engineer and the adoption of TGV by the French government as its high-speed ground transport solution. A test track for a tracked hovercraft system was built at Earith near Cambridge, England. It ran southwest from Sutton Gault , sandwiched between the Old Bedford River and the smaller Counter Drain to the west. Careful examination of the site will still reveal traces of the concrete piers used to support the structure. The actual vehicle, RTV31, is preserved at Railworld in Peterborough [34] and can be seen from trains, just south west of Peterborough railway station .

The vehicle achieved 104 mph (167 km/h) on 7 February 1973 [35] but the project was cancelled a week later. The project was managed by Tracked Hovercraft Ltd., with Denys Bliss as Director in the early 1970s, only to be axed by the Aerospace Minister, Michael Heseltine . Records of this project are available from the correspondence and papers of Sir Harry Legge-Bourke, MP at Leeds University Library. [36] Heseltine was accused by Airey Neave and others of misleading the House of Commons when he stated that the government was still considering giving financial support to the Hovertrain, when the decision to pull the plug had already been taken by the Cabinet. Despite promising early results, the Cambridge project was abandoned in 1973 due to financial constraints, but parts of the project were picked up by the engineering firm Alfred McAlpine , only to be finally abandoned in the mid-1980s. The Tracked Hovercraft project and Professor Laithwaite's Maglev train system were contemporaneous, and there was intense competition between the two prospective British systems for funding and credibility.

At the other end of the speed spectrum, the Dorfbahn Serfaus has been in continuous operation since 1985. This is an unusual underground air cushion funicular rapid transit system, situated in the Austrian ski resort of Serfaus . Only 1,280 m (4,200 ft) long, the line reaches a maximum speed of 25 mph (40 km/h). A similar system also exists in Narita International Airport near Tokyo, Japan. In the late 1960s and early 1970s the U.S. Department of Transport's Urban Mass Transit Administration funded several hovertrain projects which were known as Tracked Air Cushion Vehicles or TACVs. They were also known as Aerotrains since one of the builders had a licence from Bertin's Aerotrain company. Three separate projects were funded. Research and development was carried out by Rohr, Inc. , Garrett AiResearch and Grumman. The UMTA built an extensive test site in Pueblo, Colorado, with different types of tracks for the different technologies used by the prototype contractors. They managed to build prototypes and do a few test runs before the funding was cut.

Non-transportation Edit The Hoover Constellation was a spherical canister-type vacuum cleaner notable for its lack of wheels. Floating on a cushion of air, it was a domestic hovercraft. They were not especially good as vacuum cleaners as the air escaping from under the cushion blew uncollected dust in all directions, nor as hovercraft as their lack of a skirt meant that they only hovered effectively over a smooth surface. Despite this, original Constellations are sought-after collectibles today. The Flymo is an air-cushion lawn mower which uses a fan on the cutter blade to provide lift. This allows it to be moved in any direction, and provides double-duty as a mulcher. The Marylebone Cricket Club owns a 'hover cover' that it uses regularly to cover the pitch at Lord's Cricket Ground . This device is easy and quick to move, and has no pressure points, making damage to the pitch less likely. The system is quite popular at major pitches in the UK. Preservation Edit Lee-on-the-Solent , Hampshire, England, is the home to the Hovercraft Museum which houses the world's largest collection of hovercraft designs, including some of the earliest and largest.

Much of the collection is housed within two retired SR.N4 hovercraft, and many hovercraft in the collection are operational. Hovercraft are still in use between Ryde on the Isle of Wight and Southsea on the mainland. The service, operated by Hovertravel , runs many times an hour and is the fastest way of getting on or off the island. Large passenger hovercraft are still manufactured on the Isle of Wight. Records Edit World's Largest Civil Hovercraft [37] - The BHC SR.N4 Mk.III, at 56.4 m (185 ft) length and 310 metric tons (305 long tons) weight, can accommodate 418 passengers and 60 cars. World's largest military hovercraft - The Russian Zubr class LCAC at 57.6 meters length and a maximum displacement of 535 tons. This hovercraft can transport three T-80 main battle tanks (MBT), 140 fully equipped troops, or up to 130 tons of cargo. Four have been purchased by the Greek Navy .

English Channel crossing - 22 minutes by Princess Anne MCH SR.N4 Mk.III on September 14, 1995 World's Hovercraft Speed Record [38] - September 18, 1995 - Speed Trials, Bob Windt (USA) 137.4 km/h (85.87 mph), 34.06 secs measured kilometre Longest continuous use - The original prototype SR.N6 Mk.I (009) was in service for over twenty years, and logged a remarkable 22,000 hours of use. It is currently on display at the Hovercraft Museum in Lee-on-the-Solent , Hampshire, England. Hovercraft parked on foreshore in New Zealand See also Hoverspeed Fast Ferries The Hovercraft: End of an Era Archived Article ABOVE: Hoverspeed's Princess Anne carried 396 passengers and 53 cars between Dover and Calais in 35 minutes. On October 1, 2000, Hoverspeed ended more than 32 years of cross-Channel ferry service by hovercraft.

The retirement of its two SRN4 Mark III hovercraft, the Princess Margaret and the newer Princess Anne (see photo), completed Hoverspeed's transitition to a Seacat- and Superseacat-based catamaran ferry service. The following archived article, which was written to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Princess Margaret in 1998, describes what it was like to travel from Dover to Calais by hovercraft. By Durant Imboden I n July, 1998, Hoverspeed Fast Ferries celebrated 30 years of service by its first commercial hovercraft, the Princess Margaret (a sister to the Princess Anne, shown above). Both SRN4 Mark III craft remain the largest hovercraft in the world, and they continue to offer frequent daily service on the English Channel's Dover-Calais route. If you've never traveled by hovercraft, you're missing a unique experience. You drive or walk aboard, then settle into an airline-style seat in one of the two passenger cabins that flank the vehicle deck. The car hatches are closed, the four 3,800-hp gas turbines rev up, and air fills the rubber skirts beneath the craft..

Moments later, four huge propellers send the craft blasting across the English Channel at more than 50 knots (58 mph or 98 km/h). You can read a free newspaper, have a cup of coffee, and have duty-free goods delivered to your seat during the brief "flight" (as hovercraft journeys are called). When the channel is rough, you may feel a bit of chop despite the 3m/10-foot air cushion that separates the hovercraft from the water. This shouldn't be a cause for alarm--the craft are approved for operation in 50-knot winds and 3.5-meter or 11.5-foot waves. As you approach the French or English coast, you may experience a moment of alarm as the hovercraft continues to speed ahead in a torrent of spray. But the craft makes a seamless transition from water to land, settling onto the concrete pad of the hoverport after its dramatic arrival. Elapsed time: 35 minutes, making Hoverspeed the fastest connection between England and France. Hovercraft meets Seacat Since 1991, Hoverspeed Fast Ferries has supplemented its hovercraft with fast catamarans. Dover-Calais.

The Seacat Isle of Man crosses the channel in 50 minutes, carrying up to 573 passengers and 85 cars. Dover-Ostend. Two state-of-the-art catamarans, the Rapide and the Diamant, traverse this 152-year-old route between England and Belgium in just under two hours. The 81-meter or 266-foot boats feature computerized ride control and carry 674 passengers with 155 cars. Folkstone-Boulogne. The Seacat Great Britain covers this route in 55 minutes. (In 1990, the Great Britain captured the Hales Trophy for the fastest transatlantic sea crossing with a time of 3 days 7 hours 57 minutes. The previous record, set by the S.S. United States, had been unbeaten since 1952.) Newhaven-Dieppe. This newer route has two to three crossings a day, with the journey taking two hours. The Superseacat hauls up to 700 passengers and 175 vehicles across the Channel at speeds exceeding 40 knots. Hovercraft background reading

Question: Which year saw the last commercial hovercraft English Channel crossing?
Answer: 2000