Our TiVo box recorded us a 1960s promotional film from the British Hovercraft Corporation the other day. We enjoyed it, and it brought back memories of crossing the channel on the hovercraft Princess Anne a few times.
As I remember, it was a bit more money than the ferry, and more like an aircraft in seating style. It also took half the time, and although very noisy outside, not so inside.
It was definitely our preferred mode of channel crossing.
Remind me - why did they fall out of favour so much? I think there's still the Isle of Wight crossing but that's it. Was it just the Chunnel that killed it? You'd think there'd still be uses in other areas around the world, but it seems the whole industry is pretty dead, certainly in Britain.
Shame.
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>> I think there's still the Isle of Wight crossing
Correct. Whenever I used to go to Southsea as a child, I spent ages watching it come in and up the concrete slab, then go back out to sea again once loaded up with the next lot of passengers. As an adult, I made the mistake of parking the car not very far away from it along the seafront. Something I only did the once. Car was a right filthy mess, covered all over in salty sea spray.
www.hovertravel.co.uk/
Last edited by: VxFan on Mon 21 Aug 17 at 10:19
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My Dad commuted Ryde-Southsea and back for nearly 20 years on the Hovercraft. OK on calm days; gets a bit exciting when the wind gets up!
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Back in the early 80s my job involved a lot of trips back and forth across the channel with the car. Always used the hovercraft when possible. Quite a bouncy ride sometimes but so much quicker than the ferry. I was shuttling between London and Florence and got it down to one hit overnight trips in my trusty company Cortina 2.0 GL !
Velour seats, no aircon and Italian sunshine were a fairly unpleasant combination though.
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>> Velour seats, no aircon and Italian sunshine were a fairly unpleasant combination though.
good job you didn't have a sun roof.
Last edited by: Zero on Tue 22 Aug 17 at 10:50
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I did buy one of those wooden beaded seat covers though. Remember those? It did help. Apart from the patterns it left on your back and other places.
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Velour seats - luxury!
Black vinyl is the stuff.
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It was a bit of a white elephant really. Didn't save much time compared to a ferry, cost a lot more, was noisy and couldn't operate in rough sea conditions and was motion sickness inducing.
Does anyone remember the aircraft car ferry service that operated in the the early 1960s?
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That'll teach me to Google FIRST.
Mutterings here about a new hovercraft crossing planned for the River Severn. Intriguing but 2015.
www.theforestreview.co.uk/article.cfm?id=340&headline=Severn%20hovercraft%20%20plans%20are%20unveiled&searchyear=2015
Last edited by: Crankcase on Mon 21 Aug 17 at 10:30
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The car air ferry flew from Lympne in Kent to, I believe, the little airport at Etaples, over the Channel. The operator was Silver City Airways.
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It flew from a number of places. Lympne initially then the purpose built airport at Lydd, known as Ferryfield. Main destination was Le Touquet with Ostend also offered. History here:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_City_Airways
At it's peak it more or less operated as a shuttle service.
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James Bond used the service to take his Aston Martin to the continent in Goldfinger - the film.
I made an Airfix model of the Bristol Superfreighter (Only 55 years or so ago!)
8o)
Last edited by: neiltoo on Mon 21 Aug 17 at 11:06
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Seem to remember they didn't operate at night.
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I still have the model of the Aston. Boxed, with a spare passenger to be ejected and land where you put your bare foot down after a bath !
I can't remember if it's gold or silver...the car, not the man.
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Strangely enough still have mine. Sat on top of my computer at work. Could do with a respray and the passenger has long since gone.
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>> James Bond used the service to take his Aston Martin to the continent in Goldfinger
>> - the film.
Only after Auric Goldfinger had used one to take his Rolls Royce. Filmed at Southend Airport.
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When I was 8/10 yo in mid 60s we used to fly from Yeadon ( now LBA) to Jersey for holidays. At the time I collected aircraft numbers and have old slides somewhere of those Bristol Freighters. After bfast at the B & B my parents would drive me to the airport with some food, and collect me several hours later... probably get prosecuted for child neglect these days.
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>>probably get prosecuted for child neglect these days.
I dunno, I've been abandoning my daughter at lakes and rivers for years. [She likes to fish, I don't]. Wherever we are, the other Fishermen are always kind and look out for her, even though casually complete strangers.
Maybe I just haven't received the summons yet.
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1970's -Saudi Arabian customs patrolled area near Bahrain with 2 hovercraft. Smuggling was the issue but they were not 100% reliable - you could tell when the hovercraft were OOS - the price of whisky fell from £10 a bottle to £4/£5.
The £10 price should be viewed as about 1/2 of the UK average weekly pay in 1970.
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Does the military still use them?
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>> Does the military still use them?
Sure do, tho they have now been renamed to LCAC - Landing Craft Air Cushion
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>> Does the military still use them?
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A few do but not many use the large ones. Just too expensive to operate.
The Russians have got some of the biggest in the world.
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>> At the time I collected aircraft numbers and hav
You might enjoy this lot as much as I did:
www.flickr.com/photos/83468450@N03/sets/72157630895703826/page1
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>> Does anyone remember the aircraft car ferry service that operated in the the early 1960s?
Only when it was at Southend Airport and BUAF were using the ATL-98 Carvair. We used to go to the airport for afternoon tea on the roof top terminal terrace and watch them loading and taking off.
Fabulous things, like a mini jumbo jet look alike.
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>> Fabulous things, like a mini jumbo jet look alike.
First one I ever saw was at Leeds Bradford in 1975, G ASDC which had been converted to a pure freighter and was mostly unpainted to improve payload. A grey and very humid summer's day and this grey plane gradually takes shape from out of the murk over Otley Chevin. A jumbo was out of question at time but there was the briefest double take until I could see a less head on view.
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www.griffonhoverwork.com/
These guys are still making them !
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I remember going to Stokes Bay, near Lee on Solent, to a hovercraft exhibition/show of some sort in the 60s. There were a number there, some small almost home-made affairs, plus the SRN1, which I believe was the first commercial one. IIRC the cross channel one was an SRN6. At the time, the hovercraft was seen as a solution to allow access to many difficult areas - there were photos, or perhaps artists' impressions, of them being used by armies to patrol rivers in jungles, crossing deserts, mud etc.
I believe that the Southsea-Ryde service is the oldest continuous hovercraft service in the world, could even be the only one at the present time. Went on it a few times when I was younger - quite fun, but the spray it produced meant that the views out of the windows were lacking!
I'm a bit surprised that they never really caught on.
Last edited by: Mike H on Tue 22 Aug 17 at 10:30
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>> I believe that the Southsea-Ryde service is the oldest continuous hovercraft service in the world, could even be the only one at the present time.
www.hovertravel.co.uk/about-hovertravel.php
"Hovertravel is the world’s longest running commercial hovercraft service and is the only scheduled passenger hovercraft service in the Europe."
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Hovercraft - VxFan
