Which boat builder invented the hovercraft in 1956?
"video, photographs and drawings on hovercraft, all of which is available for research by prior arrangement. A number of hovercraft manufacturers have deposited their complete archives with the museum for safekeeping, thus swelling this important repository of information. The museum also contains a large collection of original manufacturers' hovercraft models including the world's first working hovercraft model built by Christopher Cockerell. The museum reopened in January 2016 after being closed for essential structural building work over nearly two years. Shortly afterwards the remaining SR.N4 craft came under threat of scrapping when the site owners, the Homes and Communities Agency, proposed"
"(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. The world's first car-carrying hovercraft was made in 1968, the BHC ""Mountbatten"" class (SR.N4) models,"
"Hovercraft tank Hovercraft tank, or, officially, the amphibious hovering tank (Russian: ""Земноводный подлетающий танк"") was developed at Moscow aircraft plant #84 in the USSR in 1937 by a group of engineers led by professor Vladimir Israilevich Levkov. Its development never left the mockup stage. First successful experiments with hovercraft in the USSR date back to the mid-1930s and are tightly connected with the name of a talented engineer and designer Vladimir Levkov, who substantiated the possibility of hovercraft as far back as in 1925 in his treatise named ""The vortex theory of the rotor"" (Russian: ""Вихревая теория ротора""). In 1934"
"armed with torpedoes – for coastal service, and in January 1916 the company received an order for twelve boats, which formed the beginning of a long line of ""Coastal Motor Boats"" delivered to the Royal Navy and later to other navies also. The Hovercraft Museum holds a number of hull models that John Thornycroft used for his experiments, using air-flow as a mean of lifting boats out of the water. The oldest dates back to 1877. John Thornycroft died in 1928 and was widely commemorated for his inventions and engineering skills. His son John Edward Thornycroft (1872–1960) and grandson John"
"hovering was by Swedish scientist Emanuel Swedenborg in 1716. The shipbuilder Sir John Isaac Thornycroft patented an early design for an air cushion ship / hovercraft in the 1870s, but suitable, powerful, engines were not available until the 20th century. In 1915, the Austrian Dagobert Müller von Thomamühl (1880–1956) built the world's first ""air cushion"" boat (Luftkissengleitboot). 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"
"France. It successfully crossed the English Channel between Calais and Dover on 25 July 1959, 50 years to the day after the historic crossing by Bleriot. In January 1959, the NRDC formed a subsidiary called Hovercraft Development Ltd. Cockerell was the Technical Director and the company controlled the patents which it used to license several private sector firms to manufacture craft under the registered trademark of Hovercraft. Cockerell received an Honorary Doctorate from Heriot-Watt University in 1971. In later life, Cockerell developed many other improvements to the hovercraft, and invented various other applications for the air cushion principle, such as"
"Ship Research and Development Center (NSRDC) near Annapolis, Maryland. The large air-cushion vehicles used today by the US military are largely a product of their design and testing. In his retirement he invented, tested, and patented the Beachbuilder system of beach erosion prevention. Beardsley died 26 November 1998. Melville W. Beardsley Melville Whitnel Beardsley (10 October 1913 in Kansas City, Missouri – 26 November 1998 in Carmel, California) was the American inventor and aeronautical engineer whose pioneering efforts may have contributed to the invention of the Hovercraft. Melville Beardsley was born in Kansas City, Missouri on 10 October 1913, to"
"ABS Hovercraft ABS Hovercraft is a British hovercraft designer and producer, founded in the early 1990s in Chandlers Ford, Hampshire. ABS Hovercraft researched the introduction of new materials to innovate Hovercraft technology. In 1993 ABS created the world’s fastest recreational Hovercraft fully made from advanced composite materials. In 1994 ABS launched the largest Hovercraft entirely made from advanced composite materials, called the ABS M-10, which was built by Vosper Thornycroft in Southampton. The M-10 crossed the English Channel and was the first hovercraft to circumnavigate the Baltic Sea during winter trials in 1994. In 1995 the ABS M-10 was sold"
"as inflatable air cushions, pump-jets and centrifugal fans; these would effectively emerge as a single new form of amphibious vehicle, later known as the hovercraft. Having tested and found substance to his theories during the early 1950s, Cockerell proceeded to approach various aircraft companies and shipbuilders, but had difficult gaining their backing, in part due to a lack of understanding of the technologies involved. Undeterred, his work soon attracted the attention of Lord Mountbatten, the First Sea Lord of the Royal Navy, who arranged for a demonstration of his model to Admiralty representatives and patent officials in 1956. One of"
"the L-1 hovercraft boat which is sometimes referred to as the first hovercraft boat in the world was designed and built in his laboratory, with the L-5 fast-attack boat soon to follow. It became obvious that there was a great potential in further development of this technology of transportation. Along with civilian vehicles, Levkov also made attempts to employ the technology for military use. In 1937 a group of Moscow aircraft plant #84 engineers under his lead initiated the development of a hovercraft tank, or, as it was named in the original documentation, the ""amphibious hovering tank"". It was loosely"
"Hoverspeed Hoverspeed, formed in 1981 by the merger of Seaspeed and Hoverlloyd, was a ferry company that operated on the English Channel from 1981 until 2005. The last owners were Sea Containers Ltd; the company ran a small fleet of two high-speed SeaCat catamaran ferries in its final year. Hoverspeed is notable for its part in developing the hovercraft, and ran six SR.N4 Mountbatten class hovercraft and one SEDAM N500 Naviplane. Hoverspeed last operated hovercraft on its Dover to Calais service. They were withdrawn on 1 October 2000 and replaced by Seacat catamarans built by Incat. Throughout its history Hoverspeed"
"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 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. During the 1960s, Saunders-Roe developed several larger designs that could carry passengers, including the SR.N2, which operated across the Solent, in 1962, and later"
"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. 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,"
"use of mahogany, teak, and brass. Chris-Craft manufactured its first fiberglass boat by 1955. The company added a metal boat division in 1957, designated as the Roamer Steel Boats Division (RSBD). This was founded upon its purchase of the Roamer Boat Company, and the boats became known as Chris Craft Roamers. The company continued to be independent until it was acquired by Shields & Company's NAFI Corporation in 1960 and merged with NAFI. The merged company was renamed in 1962 as Chris-Craft Industries, Incorporated. Chris-Craft Boats Chris-Craft Boats was an American manufacturer of boats that was founded by Christopher Columbus"
"Hobie Cat The Hobie Cat is a small sailing catamaran manufactured by the Hobie Cat Company. Hobie's line of products ranges from surfboards to catamaran sailboats to kayaks and stand-up paddle boards, though the Hobie Cat Company is most famous around the world for its catamarans. Hobie also designed a very successful monohull, the Hobie 33. The company founder, Hobart Alter, began as a surfboard manufacturer in the late 1950s. According to another source, Alter's focus changed in 1961 to designing an easily beached fibreglass catamaran. The impetus of this shift is attributed to a 1961 boat show in Anaheim,"
"Andrew, John, Mary Magdalene, Felix, Petronilla, Stephen, Dorothy, Edward the Confessor and George. Somerleyton was the home of Christopher Cockerell while he invented the hovercraft in his post-war career founding in Somerleyton a boatyard and hire business Ripplecraft — cabin cruisers for hire serving holidaymakers cruising the Norfolk Broads. Unveiled in 2010 the Hovercraft Column commemorates Cockerell's invention during this time. The Waveney runs runs west of Somerleyton giving access to the Broads and a rail swing bridge crosses the river in the south-west. This can be viewed from the end of the un-metalled lane starting south of the 'Duke's"
"1844, after the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company patent had been granted. In 1852, while traveling in England, Charles Goodyear discovered that Thomas Hancock's company was producing vulcanized rubber and sued. Thomas Hancock had been shown a sample of Goodyear's rubber in 1842, but had not been told the process that made it—and Hancock said he had developed his process independently. The last of the suits were settled in 1855. Shortly thereafter, several people expanded on experimentation of rubber coated fabrics. In 1839 the Duke of Wellington tested the first inflatable pontoons. In 1840, the English scientist Thomas Hancock designed"
"where Cockerell lived and worked. The Cottage has been demolished, but the garage still stands. The plaque was erected by Friends of East Cowes with financial support from the Big Lottery Fund. Cockerell's workshop, including his left-handed lathe, was gifted to the Lowestoft Maritime Museum on his death in 1999 where it was reassembled and is now on show to the public. Christopher Cockerell Sir Christopher Sydney Cockerell CBE RDI FRS (4 June 1910 – 1 June 1999) was an English engineer, best known as the inventor of the hovercraft. Cockerell was born in Cambridge, where his father, Sir Sydney"
"in 1970 by the Finnish builder Artekno. The ""H"" in the name H-boat"" came from the Greek mythology goddess Hestia.During the first three years, 500 boats were sold. In 1971, Elvstrøm started production of the H-boat with some modifications on rudder and mast and in 1977 Botnia. The H-boat World Championships has been sailed since 1980. H-boat The H-Boat is a one-design keelboat designed by Finnish Hans Groop in 1967, with some minor modifications by Paul Elvstrøm in 1971. The boat gained international status in 1977. Since 1967 over 5000 hulls have been made, making it one of the most"
"Christopher Cockerell Sir Christopher Sydney Cockerell CBE RDI FRS (4 June 1910 – 1 June 1999) was an English engineer, best known as the inventor of the hovercraft. Cockerell was born in Cambridge, where his father, Sir Sydney Cockerell, was curator of the Fitzwilliam Museum, having previously been the secretary of William Morris. His mother was the illustrator and designer Florence Kingsford Cockerell. Christopher attended the preparatory school of St Faith's. Christopher was educated at Gresham's School, Holt, Norfolk. He matriculated to Peterhouse, Cambridge to read mechanical engineering and was tutored by William Dobson Womersley. He was later to return"
"SR.N4 The SR.N4 (Saunders-Roe Nautical 4) hovercraft (also known as the ""Mountbatten""-class hovercraft) was a large passenger and vehicle carrying hovercraft built by the British Hovercraft Corporation (BHC). BHC was formed by the merger of Saunders-Roe and Vickers Supermarine in 1966. Work on the SR.N4 began in 1965 and the first trials took place in early 1968. Power was provided by four Rolls-Royce Proteus marine turboshaft engines each driving its own lift fan and pylon-mounted steerable propulsion propeller. The SR.N4 was the largest hovercraft built to that date, designed to carry 254 passengers in two cabins besides a four-lane automobile"
"Griffon Hoverwork Griffon Hoverwork Ltd (GHL) is a British hovercraft designer and manufacturer. It was founded after Griffon Hovercraft Ltd of Southampton, and Hoverwork Ltd of the Isle of Wight, were acquired by the Bland Group in 2008, then merged in 2009. The Isle of Wight facility was closed in 2012. Before the merger with Hoverwork, Griffon Hovercraft Ltd (founded 1976) was one of the oldest manufacturers of larger sized hovercraft. In the 1960s the company's founder, Dr E.W.H. Gifford, was one of the early hovercraft pioneers and was involved with the first commercial hovercraft operation. At the time of"
"Glastron Glastron is a boat manufacturing company and was one of the first manufacturers of fiberglass boats. Bob Hammond, Bill Gaston, Bob Shoop, and Guy Woodard founded this company on October 14, 1956 in Austin, Texas. It was sold to Genmar Holdings in the 1990s and manufacturing was moved to Minnesota. Glastron is known for its boat hull design innovations, including the Aqualift and ""SSV"" hull designs, the latter of which is still in use today. Glastron's ""Glastonbury"" boats were featured in the James Bond film ""Live and Let Die"". A boat chase was filmed in Louisiana around the Irish"
"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"". Through these improvements, the hovercraft became an effective transport system for high-speed service on water and 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."
"Vanguard Sailboats Vanguard Sailboats was one of the most successful sailboat builders. It was founded in 1967, and is now owned by LaserPerformance. Vanguard Sailboats was founded in 1967 in Waukesha, Wisconsin, USA by Peter and Olaf Harken. The brothers started to gain attention after their sailing hardware was used on boats that won Olympic gold in 1968 and after Vanguard supplied the Finn class for several countries in the 1976 Olympics. The hardware segment was maintained somewhat separately, as it was marketed to competing boat builders. In 1986, the Harkens sold Vanguard to Stephen Clark, who moved the business"
"to push the craft forward. The British aircraft and marine engineering company Saunders-Roe built the first practical human-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. The SR.N1 was powered by a single piston engine, driven by"
"Hacker-Craft Hacker-Craft is the name given to boats built by The Hacker Boat Co. It is an American company, founded in Detroit, Michigan in 1908 by John Ludwig Hacker (known as John L. Hacker or just ""John L.""). The company moved operations to New York State in the 1970s and continues to produce hand-built boats in Ticonderoga, New York, near Lake George, New York, with corporate offices, storage facilities and a marina lakeside in Silver Bay, New York. John L. Hacker (1877–1961) was a naval architect and American motorboat designer. His major design and engineering accomplishments include the invention of"
"SR.N1 The Saunders-Roe SR.N1 (""Saunders-Roe Nautical 1"") was the first practical hovercraft. The concept has its origins in the work of British engineer and inventor Christopher Cockerell, who succeeded in convincing figures within the services and industry, including those within British manufacturer Saunders-Roe. Research was at one point supported by the Ministry of Defence; this was later provided by the National Research Development Corporation (NRDC), who had seen the potential posed by such a craft. In order to test the theories and overall concept, it was decided that the construction of a full-scale craft, designated as the SR.N1. On 11"
"the American Sailboat Hall of Fame on 29 January 2004. Related development F-27 Sport Cruiser The F-27 Sport Cruiser is an American trailerable trimaran sailboat that was designed by New Zealander Ian Farrier in 1984-1985. The boat was built by Corsair Marine in the United States between 1986 and February 1997, with 450 examples completed. The F-27 was replaced in production by the derivative F-28 design, later designated as the Corsair 28. The F-27's concept started in 1973 in Australia when Farrier developed and patented the outrigger folding system that made the design possible. Ten years later Wal-Mart heir John"
"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. The first practical design for hovercraft was 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"
"Seaspeed Seaspeed was the joint hovercraft operations of British Rail (under British Rail Hovercraft Limited) in association with the French SNCF. British Rail Hovercraft Limited was established in 1965, under authority given to it by the British Railways Act 1967 and started its first service in 1966. Seaspeed started cross-Channel services from Dover, England to Calais and Boulogne-sur-Mer, France using SR-N4 hovercraft in August 1968. The two hovercraft were named ""The Princess Margaret"" and ""The Princess Anne""; the former featured in the James Bond film ""Diamonds Are Forever"". In 1976, work started to considerably lengthen both craft by inserting an"
"British Hovercraft Corporation British Hovercraft Corporation was the corporate entity created when the Saunders Roe division of Westland Aircraft and Vickers Supermarine combined March 1966 with the intention of creating viable commercial hovercraft. The shareholdings were Westland Aircraft 65%, Vickers 25%, National Research Development Corporation (NRDC) 10%. None of the Vickers designs were 'taken forward', the existing production of the Saunders Roe designs continued (SR.N5 Warden Class and SR.N6 Winchester Class) and the Saunders Roe designed Mountbatten class hovercraft (SR.N4), was completed and entered the cross-channel service. Only one new design was produced (1969) by the British Hovercraft Corporation, the"
"1956-built Shearwater, raced successfully by Francis Prout in the 1960s, is in the collection of the National Maritime Museum Cornwall. In the mid-twentieth century, beachcats became a widespread category of sailing catamarans, owing to their ease of launching and mass production. In California, a maker of surfboards, Hobie Alter, produced the Hobie 14 in 1967, and two years later the larger and even more successful Hobie 16. As of 2016, the Hobie 16 was still being produced with more than 100,000 having been manufactured. The Tornado catamaran was designed by three Englishmen for a crew of two in 1967 as"