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In this article, James Plunkett explores the history and technological innovation behind hovercraft, highlighting their initial promise, unique engineering and niche use in military and rescue operations.
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In 175 years, we have worked on many interesting advances in the transport sector, but hovercraft stand out for their unique approach. Being neither a boat nor a plane, hovercraft combine elements of both, floating on a cushion of air to travel across terrain at speed. This concept was first successfully commercialised by Hovercraft Development Ltd who made several patent filings. Hovercraft then licenced to Saunders-Roe who developed the SR.N4 – a vessel that operated for over 40 years carrying cars and people across English Channel.
When Hovercraft Development Ltd. filed their patent application for ‘vehicles supported by gaseous cushions’ in 1962 with Haseltine Lake, the general idea of air cushioned transport was not new, but Hovercraft’s application described a development of the idea that made it viable. In the words of the application, the key was to use a “cushion of air or other gas contained within a curtain of fluid”. Dubbed the “momentum curtain” by its inventor Christopher Cockerell, this innovation allowed air cushioned vehicles to operate efficiently for the first time. Those interested can find the original application published as GB893715A.
Example illustrations of Cockerell’s momentum curtain (9) from Hovercraft’s 1962 patent – GB893715A
In the 1960s, the future of hovercraft must have seemed enormous as no other means of transport could travel so fast over such varied terrain with such little infrastructure. Ultimately however, large hovercraft never found significant commercial application outside the UK. The SR.N4 was a triumph of engineering, but it was not without operational issues. At speed, it burned 1000 gallons of aviation grade fuel every hour and the rubber skirt that contained and directed Cockerell’s “momentum curtain” didn’t work in waves higher than 2.5 metres. When the Channel Tunnel opened in 1994, channel crossings by hovercraft lasted for only another 6 years before being wound up in the year 2000.
Today, hovercraft remain employed by the world’s militaries and rescue services. But the hovercraft vessels familiar to us were not the ultimate application of the technology envisaged by Cockerell. In the 1960s and 70s Hovercraft Development Ltd. were working on a hovertrain to run on a specially adapted T shaped track. Some suggested these machines could have travelled up to 500km/hr, but the need for an entirely new kind of infrastructure meant the political hurdles were greater than the technical. So often is this the case!
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