This week in 1965: The Hovercraft

For the legions of travellers who used it to hop across the channel, the hovercraft was a vision of the future. Little did they know that by the beginning of the 21st century it would be no more than a footnote in cross-channel transport history.

Here, The Engineer reports on the work of Hovercraft Developments, set up by the government to 'realise the possibilities of the "hovercraft" principle' dreamed up by Christopher Cockerell in 1956.

Outlining the company's key areas of research, the article explains that the primary objective was the development of so-called 'flexible skirts', the plastic extension attached to the outer edge of the craft that retains the cushion of air created by the fan. Developments here, reported The Engineer, represent, 'an important advance which has changed the hovercraft from an interesting development into one having commercial capabilities…'

The article describes test facilities that included a 150ft x 40ft tank with a wavemaker able to generate 10ft waves. This was used to evaluate the performance of 10ft-long test models which were used to create accurate simulations of full-size craft 'travelling at 70 knots over 12ft waves'.