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It's 60 years since the British inventor Christopher Cockerell demonstrated the principles of the hovercraft using a cat food tin and a vacuum cleaner. Great things were promised for this mode of transport, but it never really caught on. Why?
The hovercraft slides down a concrete ramp and into the Solent. Its engines, propellers and fans hum as it crosses from Southsea, in Hampshire, to Ryde, on the Isle of Wight, travelling 4.4 nautical miles in under 10 minutes.
The journey is more than twice as quick as the catamaran from Portsmouth to Ryde and more than four times as quick as the Portsmouth-to-Fishbourne ferry.
For that matter, why haven't hydrofoils caught on?
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What Happened to Passenger Hovercraft?
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The last time I saw him he was walking down Lover's Lane holding his own hand.
-- Fred Allen
(Score: 4, Interesting) by khakipuce on Wednesday November 11 2015, @01:09PM
I also travelled across the channel on one once, it was good fun but coming back it was too rough and we were put on a ferry. The thing that sticks in my mind is that they treated it like a flight, with cabin crew and all the rest and called it a flight. I guess that was to make it feel a bit more special and justify the extra cost somewhat.