# Hovercraft 50th Anniversary



## Pompeyfan (Aug 9, 2005)

The Hovercraft Museum is worth a visit this Weekend as it celebrates the 50th anniversary of the hovercraft invented on the Isle of Wight. Hovertravel are providing a special service from Ryde direct to Lee-on-the-Solent. 

http://www.hovercraft-museum.org/home_1.html

David


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## Keltic Star (Jan 21, 2006)

Thanks for the info Pompeyfan. We are involved in some R&D for new hovercraft technology and will certainly visit the museum when I am over in the UK in September for a trade show.


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## The Ferry Man (Apr 22, 2009)

Do you have a link regarding the HoverTravel Lee-on-Solent service? I have looked on the HoverTravel site and cannot see any mention of it?


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## Pompeyfan (Aug 9, 2005)

The Ferry Man said:


> Do you have a link regarding the HoverTravel Lee-on-Solent service? I have looked on the HoverTravel site and cannot see any mention of it?


Sorry Ferry Man, only just come back on line having been over there all day yesterday. Here is the link

http://www.hovertravel.co.uk/pages/hovershow

or phone 01983 811000

I will post pictures later

The museum is open today until 1700 and tomorrow from 1100 to 1600. 

David


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## Pilot mac (Jun 28, 2005)

Interesting that somebody is doing R & D on hovercraft. It was great to cross the Channel in less than 25 minutes in smooth seas and absolute purgatory to shake your way across in 2 hours in moderate conditions. They might be fine on the Solent, other than that the best place for them is firmly tucked up in their museum .

regards
Dave


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## Don Matheson (Mar 13, 2007)

My second engineer on a couple of supply ships was the nephew of Sir C. Cockrill who I believe invented the Hovercraft. 
Crossed the Channel a few times on the Princesses and as Pilot Mac says great in good weather, not quite so good when the sea gets up a bit.
Personally think they are a wonderful idea.

Don


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## Pompeyfan (Aug 9, 2005)

Yes, don, the inventor of the hovercraft was Sir Christopher Cockerell. His daughter Frances Cockerell opened the 50th anniversary yesterday.

Below are a few pictures.

The inside picture is the inside of Princess Anne.

More to follow

David


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## Pompeyfan (Aug 9, 2005)

More pictures at the hovercraft museum yesterday. Notice the Southampton to Cowes route. There are so many different types of hovercraft on show both passenger and other working craft used all over the world including military.

David


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## shamrock (May 16, 2009)

Does anyone else remember one of the big 4 engine hovercraft...I believe it was one of the first built...anyway it was on test and there was a problem with the skirt. I was only a kid at the time and can remember going on it with my dad at East Cowes and having a look around it. No seats or anything fitted inside and it was floating in the harbour next to the Red Funnel car ferry linkspan.

Sat there for weeks whilst being repaired and then went off on tests again before being fitted out and entering service on the Channel from Dover to Boulogne route.


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## Pompeyfan (Aug 9, 2005)

These sequence of shots show the problems the Hovertravel craft Freedom 90 had when she came to pick us up at Lee-On-The-Solent and drop passengers back. The wind had got up since she took us over in the morning and at one stage I did not think she was going to make it.

The last shot is her leaving in the morning taking passengers over to Ryde for the day. 

David


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## JoK (Nov 12, 2006)

I was out in a hovercraft a couple of weeks ago...intersting experience. They cetainly are tricky things for the pilots.
R&D involve the blades, KelticStar?


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## Pompeyfan (Aug 9, 2005)

shamrock said:


> Does anyone else remember one of the big 4 engine hovercraft...I believe it was one of the first built...anyway it was on test and there was a problem with the skirt. I was only a kid at the time and can remember going on it with my dad at East Cowes and having a look around it. No seats or anything fitted inside and it was floating in the harbour next to the Red Funnel car ferry linkspan.
> 
> Sat there for weeks whilst being repaired and then went off on tests again before being fitted out and entering service on the Channel from Dover to Boulogne route.


One of the two above I think Ally. And the three below, Princess Anne and Princess Margaret.

David


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## shamrock (May 16, 2009)

It would have been a Mountbatten class SRN-4 hovercraft, David (one of the Princess's), just cannot remember which one. They entered service in 1968 ish IIRC...I was old enough to remember going on board and being completely wow'ed by it's size.

I think a Jenny boat took us out to where it was tied up, probably a good moneyspinner taking groups of people to see one of the new huge hovercraft


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## Pompeyfan (Aug 9, 2005)

More pictures from Hovercraft Museum. 

David


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## breezer10 (Jun 5, 2009)

used to make the rivetts that held the skirt on these hovercraft would get a box of about 5000 of them and have to grind every one individually drove me crazy lucky the job only came round every six months or so .


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## The Ferry Man (Apr 22, 2009)

Hi,

I visited the Hovercraft Museum today. Sadly despite predictions, the weather wasn't as nice as yesterday. But I still enjoyed myself.

shamrock, most likely to be The Princess Margaret, since she was the prototype SR.N4.

Pompeyfan, thanks for the link and nice pictures.


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## paull.happyhiker (Mar 16, 2009)

I think its a shame that the srn 4 type are no longer in service used to love watching them start up at Dover. Are they still up for sale?


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## Keltic Star (Jan 21, 2006)

JoK said:


> I was out in a hovercraft a couple of weeks ago...intersting experience. They cetainly are tricky things for the pilots.
> R&D involve the blades, KelticStar?


Blades, acoustics, maneuverability, propulsion system. In simple terms, the whole shebang has to be re-thought for future military deployment.
Cheers
Bob


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## davidrwarwick (Aug 22, 2005)

It may interest you all to know that the world's first hovercraft passenger service ran from Moreton (Wallasey) to Rhyl and started in 1962, unfortunately it was short lived due to adverse weather and the craft being smashed about a bit.
I can remember going to see it when I was 10 and thought it was fantastic but I've never been on one in my life.
Mike Kemble has a good article on it :-

http://www.mikekemble.com/mside/hovercraft.html

The hovercraft used was a Vickers VA3 and I'm sure I read somewhere that there isn't one in the hovercraft museum, don't know if this is true but it is a shame if it is.

Dave


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## vectiscol (Oct 14, 2006)

The village of Somerleyton in Suffolk is cheekily claiming to be the birthplace of the hovercraft, because the inventor first tested a model there. However, as a native of Cowes, I can remember the day of the first test flight of the prototype SRN-1 machine. I had intended to run down to the seafront after school to watch, but a friend and neighbour was sick in class, and I was ordered to walk all the way home with him, so missing the spectacle. The noisy hovercraft could certainly be heard all over the town, though.


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## Pilot mac (Jun 28, 2005)

There never was much R & D, they semmed to get so far and then nothing further. They were never deployed in ani deal area apart from maybe the Solent. Passengers would endure one bad crossing on the Dover Calais/Boulogne route and never return for a second go, I have never seen people so ill! The SRN4's were not supposed to operate in more than 1 metre significant wave height. I often wondered if they would be suited to the St Lawrence/Great Lakes especially on ice where I'm sure they would break all speed records. SRN4's were powered by 4 X Rolls Royce Proteus Gas Turbines
and auxilliary power provided by a very strange increadibly high speed Rover Engine (IS90 I think) which was originally designed as a car engine.

regards
Dave


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## The Ferry Man (Apr 22, 2009)

paull.happyhiker said:


> I think its a shame that the srn 4 type are no longer in service used to love watching them start up at Dover. Are they still up for sale?


They are up for sake, but I highly doubt they will sell because they need a *lot* of money to get them into operating condition.

Pilot mac, someone at the Museum agreed with you, saying they should have gone to the Great Lakes years ago.


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## Stevo (Aug 21, 2005)

I visited the Hovershow two years back and felt the SRN4 were in poor condition and I doubt they would pass any surveys to get them back into service. No doubt the engines will find a buyer but that's about it. 
Nice to see an SRN 6 in operable service, I recall those on the Ryde - Southsea route. Noisy craft but exciting nonetheless.
Would like to see the BH7 RN craft restored and operable but again unlikely. Remember that being floated off the wharf at Cowes and towed over to Lee in around 1989.


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## mclean (Jul 30, 2005)

In 1972 took a hovercraft (SRN 6) up the Mackenzie River from Hay River in the Great Slave Lake to Inuvik in the North West Territories. The owner of the company was determined to prove to the world that the craft could handle the start of the spring ice break up. The operation was a complete failure with no chance of success due to to extreme fas flowing ice movement. We made it to Inuvik after waiting a few days on the bank of the Mackenzie River awaiting favourable conditions. On to Prudhoe Bay Alaska where we were employed carrying pipe to various camps in the area over the tundra. This too was not suited to an SRN6 an dthe craft was returned to Vancouver on a Hercules aircraft. Lots of fun!! Colin


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## Keltic Star (Jan 21, 2006)

Pilot mac said:


> There never was much R & D, they semmed to get so far and then nothing further. They were never deployed in ani deal area apart from maybe the Solent. Passengers would endure one bad crossing on the Dover Calais/Boulogne route and never return for a second go, I have never seen people so ill! The SRN4's were not supposed to operate in more than 1 metre significant wave height. I often wondered if they would be suited to the St Lawrence/Great Lakes especially on ice where I'm sure they would break all speed records. SRN4's were powered by 4 X Rolls Royce Proteus Gas Turbines
> and auxilliary power provided by a very strange increadibly high speed Rover Engine (IS90 I think) which was originally designed as a car engine.
> 
> regards
> Dave


Jok can answer this better than I can but they are used in the St. Lawrence for ice breaking but no one seems to be boasting about how efficient they are or how easy to tame.


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## JoK (Nov 12, 2006)

Hovercrafts do not work well on ice due to the fact that they tend to break it. If I remember correctly the water gets pushed away from the bottom of the ice and it has no support and it collapses.
They are used on the St Lawrence and in smaller harbours for exactly that and probably SAR. 
There are 2 on the Pacific coast used for SAR and for rescue divers.

I have no ideas about the effeciencies, but my gut feeling is they are obsenely expensive to operate and maintain.


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## paull.happyhiker (Mar 16, 2009)

What was the name of the srn 4 that caught fire at Dover hoverport.


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## Pompeyfan (Aug 9, 2005)

paull.happyhiker said:


> What was the name of the srn 4 that caught fire at Dover hoverport.


Prince of Wales, 2nd April 1993.

David


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