If by chance you are on the lookout for the next exciting sport or leisure activity, in that case look no further - the next popular trend on sea and land and race tracks is the small personal hovercraft. Yes, you heard me properly. Those particular cool things that hover about and really don't appear to know where they are going. See more. In fact, air cushioned vehicles (the legitimate title for hovercraft) have come a great distance ever since being invented by a English man some four decades in the past. For the first 20 years, they had been considered a type of prototype transport, and when first applied to the War Office in England's capital city, UK, the plans were laughed at.
The military didn't want the hovercraft due to the fact that it definitely was not a vehicle. The Navy claimed it wasn't a vessel and therefore useless. The Air Force said that it didn't really fly, so it was in fact no good to them. So the design languished for twenty years or so before it was viewed as as a large passenger craft to ferry travellers over the British Channel. The RN101 took service in the late 60s and operated for several years. It was actually fairly big and rode some five feet away from the surface of the shore or sea. Legend has it that it was not overly stable and very noisy - also, people needed to wear seat belts - no going off to have a keg at the bar!
Nonetheless, the machines were consistently costly to maintain and run (significantly in an era of increasing fuel costs), and they never gained consistent profits for their constructors. The most recent pair of SR.N4 hovercraft were actually retired in October 2000, and sent to the Hovercraft Museum in Hampshire, England. Cockerells first SR.N1 is housed in the archive at the Science Museum in Wiltshire, The United Kingdom. The generic name hovercraft carries on being applied to describe numerous other ACVs constructed and managed all over the world, including small recreational hovercraft, medium ferry-types that operate on coastal and river routes, and huge land and sea attack hovercraft employed by the big military countries.
The UK Channel Hovercraft were completely built by Saunders-Roe company. The first in the series, recognized as SR.N1 a 4 ton craft that could transport only its team of three, was in fact created by British engineer Christopher Cockerell - it crossed the Channel for the first time on July twenty five, 1959. Hovertrain, a new concept, was launched some 4 years later. Ten years in the future Cockerell was knighted for his particular achievement. By this time the last and biggest of the assortment, the SR.N4, had begun to ply the ferry lanes in between Ramsgate and Dover on the English side and Calais and Boulogne on the French side.
The uk channel Hovercraft were actually completely developed by the Saunders-Roe organization. The first in the group, known as SR.N1, a 4 ton vessel, that had the capability to transport only its team of 3 and was as a matter of fact created by British engineer Christopher Cockerell - it traversed the Channel for the maiden voyage on July 25, nineteen fifty nine. Ten years later on Cockerell was reconized by the queen for his particular accomplishment. During this period the last and largest of the group, the SR.N4, had begun to execute the ferryboat lanes in between Ramsgate and Dover on the British part and Calais and Boulogne on the French.