A Hovercraft is also sometime called an Air Cushion Vehicle or ACV. This is a vehicle that flies like a plane but can float like a boat, can drive on land like a car but will traverse ditches and small gullies as if it were flat terrain. Modern Hovercraft are used for many applications where people or equipment need to travel at speed over water but be able to load and unload on land. The hovercraft engine provides the power to drive large fans that blow air under the craft. The air is retained by a rubber ‘skirt’ that enables the craft to travel over a wide range of terrain. The skirt simply gives way when an obstacle is encountered. The engine also supplies power to a thrust propeller of some kind that pushes the craft forward on its ‘bubble' of air. Rudders, not unlike those of an aircraft, steer the direction of the vessel

The idea of reducing water drag on a vessel by compressing or inducing under the vehicle whilst it traveled along was not entirely new... The hovercraft concept can be traced back to the early 1700's, throughout the centuries various people experimented with the concept, but it was not until the arrival of internal combustion engine that feasible progress was made.

Various forms of air cushion craft began to evolve after the first working example was demonstrated in 1916. At that time, Dagobert Muller von Thomamhul, an Austrian engineer, designed and built an air cushion torpedo boat for the Austrian Navy, which used fans to pump air beneath the hull to form a lubricating air cushion. Further development was abandoned when World War I ended the Austro-Hungarian Empire and thereby the existence of its navy.

The hovercraft as we know it today was invented by Christopher Cockerell in 1956. His idea was to build a vehicle that would move over the water's surface, floating on a layer of air, thereby reducing friction between the water and vehicle. To test his hypothesis, in 1955 he put one a smaller can inside a larger can and used a hairdryer to blow air into them. The downward thrust produced was greater when one can was inside the other rather than air just being blown into one can. The term 'hovercraft' was coined by Christopher Cockrell himself.. He achieved the one thing that everyone else was chasing,-- a working example of a hovering vehicle on a cushion of air. The first full-size Hovercraft was shown in public in June 1959. The craft was called the Saunders Roe Nautical One or SRN1 for short.
In recent decades, the hovercraft has evolved into a multi-purpose vehicle that saves lives in rescue operations, transports military troops, ferries passengers, and provides a vast array of recreational opportunities such as racing and cruising to people throughout the world. The SRN1 however was not born without a lot of hard work and pain of Sir Christopher's part. He had a hard time convincing everyone that it was viable. He built a working model to show the principle and demonstrated this to many people before his concept was accepted and taken seriously.

In recent decades, the hovercraft has evolved into a multi-purpose vehicle that saves lives in rescue operations, transports military troops, ferries passengers, and provides a vast array of recreational opportunities such as racing and cruising to people throughout the world.

The heyday of the Hovercraft as a mass transporter of vehicles and people is now in decline; its popularity indented by spiraling fuel costs, environmental concerns over noise and emissions.

With water jet powered multihull and wave piercing catamarans giving similar payload and speed coupled with much greater fuel economy we are unlikely ever to see the likes of the magnificent SRN4's outside of a military application. Smaller hovercraft will continue to operate in their niche environments where nothing else can perform the job required. In October of 2000, the Princess Margaret and the Princess Anne, two of the world's largest hovercraft, were retired after thirty years of ferrying tens of millions of passengers across the English Channel. The Princess Margaret was featured in the James Bond Film, Diamonds are Forever. Both Princesses are now (2004) kept in service operational condition at the British Hovercraft Museum at Gosport, Great Britain.

Weighing in at 310 tons and capable of carrying 418 passengers and 60 cars is the /SRN4 MkIII/ hovercraft. Despite its huge size (56.4 m (185 ft) length) the craft has exceeded 75 knots!!!

The history of the hovercraft is a rich one, created by unique individuals with remarkable vision and perseverance. The hovercraft history links below will introduce you to these hovercraft pioneers and to their innovative ideas.
 

www.neoterichovercraft.com
www.hovercraft-museum.org

The following photos were taken at the last Hover show, the weather was most unhelpful with blustery winds making demonstrations to the public on the open sea challenging!!

JIM BAUMANN
 

ModelWarships.com -- -- 2005