Discussion
Went on them a couple of times as a child. Sadly that was a LOOOOONG time ago, so can't really remember in detail, just that overall to a small boy it was a brilliant experience.
Edited to add: the French also operated a large hovercraft, the N500 Naviplane, which was quite a beast. I can remember seeing it at Boulogne one year as we waited to board the SRN4.
Edited to add: the French also operated a large hovercraft, the N500 Naviplane, which was quite a beast. I can remember seeing it at Boulogne one year as we waited to board the SRN4.
Edited by Europa1 on Friday 13th September 16:24
As a teenager I remember going on them. What I remember most was how far it rose up during cushion inflation, the vibration and noise, and how quick it was. Arrival time being before we left etc. I remember us blasting past the ferries, but also the hydrofoils that used to run cross channel.
Oh....and the captain having slight delusions of grandeur by referring to the trip as a “flight”.
Oh....and the captain having slight delusions of grandeur by referring to the trip as a “flight”.
We did lots of times in the eighties. Noisy and not much ability to walk around, as kids used to ferries we didn’t like that. Cancelled the service when the sea got choppy.
I travelled on it the week before they stopped. I remember it well as I had missed the fast ferry from Dieppe and had to drive up to Calais late at night on N roads. I had little fuel and no cash.
Anyway I digress, I remember sleeping in the back of my 205 on the slipway at Calais only to be awoken by the Hovercraft coming up from the sea.
It was noisy, really tired inside but a very memorable trip. It did the crossing in 35mins on 3 engines.
I read recently that it unofficially crossed the channel in 16 minutes. That time can’t be recognised because the speed limit on the channel is 70knots!
Officially the record is 22mins.
I travelled on it the week before they stopped. I remember it well as I had missed the fast ferry from Dieppe and had to drive up to Calais late at night on N roads. I had little fuel and no cash.
Anyway I digress, I remember sleeping in the back of my 205 on the slipway at Calais only to be awoken by the Hovercraft coming up from the sea.
It was noisy, really tired inside but a very memorable trip. It did the crossing in 35mins on 3 engines.
I read recently that it unofficially crossed the channel in 16 minutes. That time can’t be recognised because the speed limit on the channel is 70knots!
Officially the record is 22mins.
Edited by Simes205 on Friday 13th September 19:21
I used them on many occasions during the 1980s and 90s.
By far the quickest way to cross the channel, and in real terms not beaten by the tunnel today. Whilst the terminal to terminal time is much the same, there was much less farting about loading and unloading the SRN4 than there is at the tunnel terminals.
I gave up using Hoverspeed when they withdrew the hovercraft and replaced them with Seacats. Whilst the things got across the open water fast enough, the amount of slow-speed running that had to be done at either end, together with the the convoluted loading and unloading procedure, meant that the overall journey time was actually no faster than the ferries.
As someone else has already said, the downside was an inability to operate if there was anything more than a moderate breeze blowing.
And although an earlier poster found it funny, hovercafts fly. Running off the water on a cushion of air counts as flying. That's why the captain used the word flight.
By far the quickest way to cross the channel, and in real terms not beaten by the tunnel today. Whilst the terminal to terminal time is much the same, there was much less farting about loading and unloading the SRN4 than there is at the tunnel terminals.
I gave up using Hoverspeed when they withdrew the hovercraft and replaced them with Seacats. Whilst the things got across the open water fast enough, the amount of slow-speed running that had to be done at either end, together with the the convoluted loading and unloading procedure, meant that the overall journey time was actually no faster than the ferries.
As someone else has already said, the downside was an inability to operate if there was anything more than a moderate breeze blowing.
And although an earlier poster found it funny, hovercafts fly. Running off the water on a cushion of air counts as flying. That's why the captain used the word flight.
rs1952 said:
And although an earlier poster found it funny, hovercafts fly. Running off the water on a cushion of air counts as flying. That's why the captain used the word flight.
A hovercraft is not an aircraft as it doesn’t fly. It’s completely reliant upon its interaction with the ground/sea surface to function; something an aircraft is not.dvs_dave said:
rs1952 said:
And although an earlier poster found it funny, hovercafts fly. Running off the water on a cushion of air counts as flying. That's why the captain used the word flight.
A hovercraft is not an aircraft as it doesn’t fly. It’s completely reliant upon its interaction with the ground/sea surface to function; something an aircraft is not.A hovercraft flies, as does anything else that moves through the air without physical contact with ground.
dr_gn said:
dvs_dave said:
rs1952 said:
And although an earlier poster found it funny, hovercafts fly. Running off the water on a cushion of air counts as flying. That's why the captain used the word flight.
A hovercraft is not an aircraft as it doesn’t fly. It’s completely reliant upon its interaction with the ground/sea surface to function; something an aircraft is not.A hovercraft flies, as does anything else that moves through the air without physical contact with ground.
The Hovercraft were good in their day but they ended up just being full of fag runners and were ridiculously noisy.
As has been said previously the hovercraft museum al Lee on Solent is open most summer weekends and well worth a visit.
IIRC they have versions of the SRN5 & 6 on display as well as a few ex-military machines and shed fulls of small craft and displays charting the history and evolution of the craft.
As for the SRN4 only the Princess Anne now exists as The Princess Margaret was recently cut up to make way for a forcoming housing development, I believe the car deck and passenger cabins are now sometimes open for visitors and they have restored some of the ancillary systems to provide lighting etc...Sadly despite both having arrived at Lee under their own power in 2000 no engines are now present as at one time the craft were owned by Wensley Hayden Bailey of Brave Challenger fame and he basically only wanted them as a source of spares as BC uses the same Bristol Proteus gas turbines...to be fair even with engines is is very unlikely they would ever have moved again anyway.
IIRC they have versions of the SRN5 & 6 on display as well as a few ex-military machines and shed fulls of small craft and displays charting the history and evolution of the craft.
As for the SRN4 only the Princess Anne now exists as The Princess Margaret was recently cut up to make way for a forcoming housing development, I believe the car deck and passenger cabins are now sometimes open for visitors and they have restored some of the ancillary systems to provide lighting etc...Sadly despite both having arrived at Lee under their own power in 2000 no engines are now present as at one time the craft were owned by Wensley Hayden Bailey of Brave Challenger fame and he basically only wanted them as a source of spares as BC uses the same Bristol Proteus gas turbines...to be fair even with engines is is very unlikely they would ever have moved again anyway.
I used to drive across to Europe regularly in the 1990s. If I was travelling alone, I’d usually take a ferry, so that I could have a meal and a doze. Sea France were my favourites until they got squeezed out. If I was sharing the driving, I’d take the Hovercraft. One detail not mentioned so far is that the Calais hoverport was closer to the Autoroute than the ferry terminal, so you could get in and out quicker. The only disappointment with the hovercraft crossing was that you couldn’t see anything outside due to the vast amount of spray blown up around the vessel, so you couldn’t get a great impression of the speed you were going. Still better experience than Le Shuttle though.
Simes205 said:
I read recently that it unofficially crossed the channel in 16 minutes. That time can’t be recognised because the speed limit on the channel is 70knots!
Officially the record is 22mins.
[/footnote]
I wonder what date the unofficial record was set. I came back from France on one in early January in the early 80's. I was on an exchange in France at the time and was meant to be on the ferry to Newhaven but there was a ferry strike. So caught train from Paris to Calais and came on the Hovercraft. Being January the weather was foul and the wind at the maximum the craft was allowed to operate. It was a very quick crossing highlighted by a very sudden stop when we hit a big wave. The people behind were enjoying a drink which ended up on the head of the people in front of me!Officially the record is 22mins.
[/footnote]
dr_gn said:
dvs_dave said:
rs1952 said:
And although an earlier poster found it funny, hovercafts fly. Running off the water on a cushion of air counts as flying. That's why the captain used the word flight.
A hovercraft is not an aircraft as it doesn’t fly. It’s completely reliant upon its interaction with the ground/sea surface to function; something an aircraft is not.A hovercraft flies, as does anything else that moves through the air without physical contact with ground.
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