A hovercraft is a vehicle that travels over land or water on a cushion of air provided by a downward blast. An ‘air cushion’ vehicle was first visualised by British engineer Sir John Thornycroft in the 1870s. However, it took nearly 100 years for an actual hovercraft to materialise.
In the mid 1950s an English engineer named Christopher Cockerell improved on Thornycroft’s theory. He first tested his theories using a cat food tin inside a coffee tin, an industrial air blower and pair of kitchen scales!
It took several years for his design to be accepted and built, but the hovercraft was finally launched in the So-lent Strait on 11 June 1959. Its first crossing of the English Channel took place on 25 July 1959 and took 2 hours 3 minutes. The first voyage of the hovercraft was captained by Peter Lamb. Since that first voyage, more than 80 million people and 12 million cars have crossed the Channel by Hovercraft.
Picture Credit : Google
