Hoverspeed hovercraft set to be destroyed

Twister Ken,

the ' Vomit Comet ' is generally took to be the converted Boing 707 NASA use for parabolic dives to give zero-G training; I very much doubt you'd have been more comfortable on a conventional ship.

Little Sister,

I always thought Cockerell did his bit from Cowes IOW - that's where they developed the SRN-1 hovercraft - but the Broads would have been a good place, I must look it up.
 
Coming back to the OP, I have visited the museum a couple few times. The people there are dedicated, very knowledgeable and indeed running on a very thin shoestring. The big cross channel vessels are very impressive close up and IMHO very much worth saving at least as much as any vintage aircraft would be. if you can get to the museum it is well worth a look - James Bond stunt craft are there plus stuff from Top Gear's attempts. It would be a pity to see them go
 
Seajet said:
Twister Ken,

the ' Vomit Comet ' is generally took to be the converted Boing 707 NASA use for parabolic dives to give zero-G training; I very much doubt you'd have been more comfortable on a conventional ship.

Little Sister,

I always thought Cockerell did his bit from Cowes IOW - that's where they developed the SRN-1 hovercraft - but the Broads would have been a good place, I must look it up.
Click to expand...

Yes, there is a memorial obelisk (with a little hovercraft model on top) in the village of Somerleyton, where Cockerell did his first experiments on Somerleyton Hall lawns!
 
Couple of anecdotes!

First, I crossed the channel on a hovercraft in about 1976. I guess it was probably one of the machines being discussed here. Anyway, it was a marginal weather day, with a bit of a chop, and the motion of the hovercraft was quite exciting! At least, I thought it was great, but sadly a lot of other passengers didn't. The motion seemed like it kept falling off a wave, and hitting the back of the next one.

Second, a few years later, I was involved with my late wife in a troop of Sea Scouts. The troop had, a year or two earlier, built a hovercraft, and we went on camp one year with it. It worked fine - until one young lad panicked and froze at the controls! Despite everyone yelling at him to let go of the throttle (a motorbike type, AFAIR), he held on and ploughed into a group of bystanders. No serious harm done - it wasn't really moving that fast, and it was very light - but exciting at the time!
 
They should save both of them. Absolutely amazing and definitely should be saved for future generations.

No doubt they want to build apartments or something on the site.

P.S. How about we also save the QE2, or will that become another piece of British history scrapped forever.
 
Ahhh, memories...
1972 Arrived at Boulogne, after hitch hiking around Europe, with too little money to afford the ferry fare home. Managed to get a standby ticket on the hovercraft for what little I had.
1974 (or thereabouts), I went on my honeymoon on the hovercraft, to the Isle of Wight.
 
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