Hovercraft Museum

Join HistBites’ host, Julian Gerry as he speaks with Doug Coulson, curator of the Hovercraft Museum at Lee-on-the-Solent. The Hovercraft Museum is the only of one of its kind in the world and holds greatest collection of Hovercraft archive, film, and historic craft. Founded in 1987, Doug has been volunteering there since the late 90s and he is also a trustee. 

Transcript

Intro Welcome to Hampshire HistBites. Join us as we delve into the past and go on a journey to discover some of the county's best, and occasionally unknown, history. We'll be speaking to experts as well as enthusiasts, asking them to reveal some of our hidden heritage as well as share with you a few fascinating untold stories. 

Julian Welcome to Hampshire HistBites, I’m Julian Gerry, your Julian for this episode in which we are at The Hovercraft Museum at Lee-on-Solent. It’s very fitting I think that it’s The Hovercraft Museum because this is the only one of its types in the world. It’s also very fitting that we’re on the Solent or at least just across the beach from it, because so much of the hovercraft’s history has been based in, around or on the Solent.  

I’m pleased to say that I’m being joined today by Doug Coulson who is one of the Trustees of the museum and we’re actually sitting, at the moment, in one of the crafts in the museum, the craft which is probably the pride and joy of the museum and really represents the epitome of hovercraft development, but we’ll come back to that craft a little later. 

What I wanted to do first Doug was just ask you to tell us a little bit about the outset of the hovercraft - where and when was it invented? 

Doug [00:01:46] Yeah, so, well obviously Sir Chistopher Cockerell is sort of recognised as the inventor, but the concept of an air-cushion vehicle was actually first explored back in the 1870s believe it or not, by a British engineer Sir John Thornycroft. Later in the 30s, the Russians also looked at the concept but Christopher Cockerell is actually known as the person who developed it, took it a step further and basically, he realised that one of the downsides of conventional boats is wave resistance or drag, so he was looking at ways of air-lubricating hulls, see if he can make the vessels more efficient. So, one of his first experimental vessels had a centrifugal fan fitted in the bow, driven by the main engine to pump air under the hull.  

He went on to try different ideas, one of them being air curtains basically at the bow and stern, essentially a sidewall craft. But he actually took the design further by having a narrow air jet around the perimeter of the craft. The advantage of an air jet curtain was the fact that that would make the craft amphibious and of course that’s one of the advantages of hovercraft obviously being able to travel on land and water.  

You may recall his actually his famous coffee tin experiment, where he basically had one coffee well, a coffee tin and then placed I believe it was a cat food tin inside it and then connected up the hairdryer to the bottom of the coffee tin. By directing the thin jet of air around the edge or in between the cans, the resultant annular jet was over three times greater efficiency than using a single coffee tin, so he actually did the experiment as we have actually over in part of our display here in the museum. 

Basically, Sir Christoper then went on to make a model and he then patented the method of using an annular jet to trap the cushion of air. 

Julian [00:04:01] Yeah, I do remember the coffee tin experiment from my school days, it seems so Heath Robinson at the time and so it was Christopher Cockerell having worked through those refinements and experiments that actually came down to this part of the world to what was then Saunders-Roe on the Isle of Wight, is that right? 

Doug Yeah so he needed a company to build a larger scale model of the design, so he approached aircraft manufacturers but they basically turned round and sort of said well, it wasn’t really an aircraft, so they weren’t initially sort of interested. He approached ship builders but they sort of basically said well, his design isn’t a ship or isn’t a boat, so they weren’t desperately interested. But Christopher Cockerell basically persisted you know, he wasn’t going to give up. He demonstrated his model, one of his models he demonstrated on the lawn of his landlord, landlord and friend actually, Lord Summerleyton. He was so impressed that he actually then contacted Lord Louis Mountbatten to get his support. So basically, Cockerell was then introduced to the NRDC (National Research and Development Corporation) and they agreed to look closer at the concept. 

Then an order was placed with Saunders-Roe at East Cowes, Isle of Wight, to build what then became the, well what was the SR.N1.  

Julian So a number of the hovercraft that were built on the Isle of Wight had the prefix SR.N, which I think is ‘Saunders-Roe Nautical’? 

Doug That’s it, yes exactly yes. 

Julian So the SR.N1 first flew in the late 50s did it? 

Doug Yes, in 1959 so that was SR.N1 was the first full-sized hovercraft, so yeah took to the water in 1959. Its most famous trip was its notable crossing of the channel on 25th July that year which was actually 50 years to the day Louis Bleriot successfully flew his first plane across the channel, yes. So Chief Pilot Captain Peter Lamb was at the controls and I'm sure you might be familiar with his name but yes, or Sheepier was obviously his nickname, and the month crew was Christopher Cockerell himself, so he basically acted as movable ballast for that crossing. He got very wet but they did it and the flight proved the capabilities of the hovercraft, well the early principle. 

Julian And that was really the springboard for a very successful decade of development of the hovercraft wasn’t it, because in the years from 1959 to 1969 both the British Hovercraft Corporation on the Isle of Wight and also a number of other companies in the local area produced a tremendous number of Hovercraft, many of which you’ve got here in the museum now. Are there any sort of particular milestone hovercraft that you would pick out from that decade of development? 

Doug Yes, so I mean we don't have all the milestone hovercraft here because they don’t sadly exist, but I mean there was the SR.N2 that followed the SR.N1 obviously, she was designed for sort of civil and military operations as opposed to just research which was the SR.N1. But the SR.N2 was a larger craft at around 64 feet I believe and her sea trials commenced in 1962. This particular craft was used on an experimental passage, or experimental passenger service, by the SouthDown Motor Services in conjunction with Westland, she actually went from Ryde to Eastney so on the unprepared beach. So that was yeah certainly an early service and I believe around a total of 1,000 passengers were carried at that time. The craft itself - the SR.N2 - went on to, it actually went over to Canada operating for trials there, then returned to the UK and actually did six weeks operating on the Bristol Channel. That particular craft - the SR.N2 - actually had the indignity of being the first hovercraft to be broken up in 1965 so obviously at the time it was not sort of deemed that every craft would be saved, it just happened to be that SR.N1 was saved, but yeah so she was known as the first hovercraft to be broken up in 1965. 

The SR.N3 then followed, again a sort of much larger craft than the SR.N1, you know four engines, and this was similar in size to the SR.N3 but designed more for sort of military use and actually did operate from the slipway of what is now well the Daedalus slipway yeah. 

Julian [00:08:56] I think quite possibly a number of people listening to our podcast may have travelled across the Solent on hovercraft which still run today although with rather more modern looking machinery, and one particular hovercraft which ran in the 60s, 70s and 80s was the SR.N6 which you do have examples of in the museum. Could you tell us a little bit about that particular craft? 

Doug Yes indeed. So skirt design, I suppose really probably if I just mention briefly the SR.N5. The SR.N5 was the first production hovercraft in the world and basically sort of came about through advances in skirt technology which meant the smaller size, you know the SR.N5 was a lot smaller than the SR.N2 and the SR.N3, but was actually you know more efficient and advances in the skirt technology made the smaller size of the craft viable.  

The SR.N6 was basically an extended or lengthened SR.N5 and the SR.N6 really can be regarded as probably the, at the time, it was the most widely used and popular or best known hovercraft in the world. The first guys on the Mk1 had 38 seats whereas the SR.N5 had 18, so yeah up to 38-seat craft. Even with the increase in payload, the performance was only decreased apparently by around 10% so it actually was quite efficient. So yeah at The Hovercraft Museum itself, yeah we have three examples of the SR.N6, is quite different really in type in sort of examples i.e. The Twin Prop Mk6, we have the Welldeck and then Seahawk, the passenger carrying one. 

Julian I think you have some particular memories of Seahawk from your own childhood. 

Doug Yes I do indeed. So, to give a little bit of history about Seahawk itself, she was the first SR.N6. She was launched in 1965 as a Mk1 38-seater and yeah she was the first passenger SR.N6 in the world. So this particular craft, she wasn’t actually named Seahawk then she was only named Seahawk when she was extended in the 1970s, but she operated trials in Norway and did cold weather trials with the Swedish Navy. She also actually starred in the film ‘Murderer’s Row’ in 1966 which some people remember. She was one of two to operate for Seaspeed from Southampton to Cowes, and as I say she was then stretched to carry 58 passengers. The craft also - Seahawk - she went in 1975 she went to Scotland under her own power and actually did just a temporary service up there just for a very short time. In the late 70s she joined Hovertravel’s fleet and she was withdrawn in 1983 and was retired with apparently 36,000 running hours, at the time was the most used hovercraft in the world. 

So yes getting on to my connection with the craft, with Seahawk, she was one of three Mk1s craft i.e. the larger seating capacity, crossing the Solent at the time with Hovertravel so we are talking about the period that I commuted on the craft was between 1980 and 1984. So yeah she was one of the three Mk1s craft that I travelled on and actually I used to make a note of the, kept a diary at the time almost like a log, of all the craft I travelled on and this particular craft - Seahawk - I made a note at the time that one winter crossing (because I used to travel on them daily to school because I commuted to school in Ryde) and one crossing coming back, one winter crossing, the wind conditions were such that it was difficult for the pilot to actually land, to put the craft back on the beach at Southsea. So we were sort of going round and round and actually if I remember rightly on this occasion we had to go back to Ryde because she had some detachable luggage panniers which were actually causing the problem with the windage so they were removed. Then we attempted back again to Southsea and I recall it was about 1hr 10 mins later that we eventually set down on the beach at Southsea. Obviously it was, you know, the service was suspended when wind conditions got to obviously a point where they knew it wouldn’t be safe, so this was still within the bounds of safety, it’s just that it was for whatever reason as I say the windage was as such that we couldn’t land at the time, but probably not everybody enjoyed that experience but as a young hovercraft enthusiast at the time it was great you know to spend 1hr 10mins on what was my favourite hovercraft at the time.  

Julian [00:13:53] An hour and 10 mins on what probably should have been a 10 minute crossing! 

Doug Yes, just that! 

Julian It obviously started a passion for you for hovercraft at that time. 

Doug Yes, very much so yes. I already had a little bit of a fascination definitely, the seeds were sown when I was quite young from having been brought up in Southsea, you know living on Southsea seafront, so my first trip on one was when I was around 6 or 7 years old at the time. So there was definitely a little bit of a fascination, then obviously hearing that familiar sound of the SR.N6s. But yeah so the schooling in the Isle of Wight, as I say I was lucky that I was doing that crossing daily and clocked up as I say certainly over 1,000 crossings, so by the age of 18 or 19 I had experienced the SR.N6s and their replacement craft. But yeah so, back then of course you know with no internet it was sort of difficult to satisfy my hunger for information, as much information as possible on hovercraft. Book shops you know, if you were lucky a good book shop would have a transport section which might have, if you were very lucky, maybe one book on hovercraft, there weren’t many books on hovercraft published back then. There were obviously books that included pictures and a few articles on hovercraft and things, so yeah I always sort of scoured the book shops, also my local library in Portsmouth - had a couple of books which I hired out in fact on more than one or two occasions I had the same book. So that was sort of really how I got some of my sort of information if you like, on.. 

Julian So that passion has obviously stuck with you and that’s what’s led to you being so involved with The Hovercraft Museum today. So Doug, can you tell me a little bit more about the site of The Hovercraft Museum and what its history is? 

Doug Yes, so the base was first established in 1917, believe it or not as a seaplane training school during WW1. Originally there were three slipways built between 1917 or 1918. HMS Daedalus was commissioned in 1939 and was actually active both during WW2 and post-war up to 1996. As you know there is obviously the airfield so it’s not just the site with the slipway, not just a seaplane base but actually an airfield and air strip as well.  

So it has a sort of history, the whole site rich in aviation, and in 1959 the site was named HMS Aerial but actually reverted to HMS Daedalus in 1965 and it formally closed in 1996. But obviously there were hovercraft connections which date from 1961. So in 1961 we had the British Interservice Hovercraft Trials Unit or IHTU and that was established and that was with personnel drawn from the Army, Royal Marines, Royal Navy and the RAF. It became known from 1968 just as the Interservice Hovercraft Unit. But the slipway obviously came in very handy for hovercraft trials, so it just lent itself to hovercraft use which of course I suppose really can be said the same of East Cowes can’t it whereas obviously that was Seaplanes to it originally they had a slipway there. 

Julian Indeed yes. 

Doug So yes, so hovercraft were based here. The trials unit was actually disbanded in 1974. It then became the Naval Hovercraft Trials Unit or NHTU, and that took over and actually operated up until its closure in 1982. So in that time on the site here, we had the SR.N5 and SR.N6 craft operating off this site, as well as the big BH7 and the VTU. 

Julian So the site had quite a long history as a trials site testing hovercraft out for the military, but the military never really took hovercraft on in any large numbers did they? 

Doug Not in large numbers no. So the Royal Marines have been operating craft so they bought, the Royal Marines have been operating craft, they bought some Griffon craft, so those operated, well they’ve had two fleets of Griffin craft up until very recently when I believe they’ve just retired. 

Julian Griffin was another local manufacturer of hovercraft? 

Doug Yes that’s right. 

Julian [00:18:46] So the military trials unit here at HMS Daedalus came to an end in 1982 and then subsequent to that the museum and its collection was started up. Can you tell us a bit more about how that came about? 

Doug Yes, so The Hovercraft Society was founded in 1971 and in 1986 a sub-committee was set up to look at ways of saving some of the pioneer craft that had been made redundant. So in 1986, Warrick Jacobs, one of the founding trustees of the museum, acquired an SR.N5 which is now in our collection. This was followed by the acquisition of a 16 metre HM2 sidewall hovercraft and then also the HD2 experimental craft. So these were the first three hovercraft in the museum, which became an official legal charity body in 1988 so that actually formed the first of the collection. 

The collections, well started I think, at one stage a craft was stored in Eastney in Portsmouth, then there was also a barn in Portchester so some of the collection was stored in there, then progressing to the site that we’re currently on. So there was the BH7 was towed over and then brought up the slipway, but was not stored immediately on the very site that we’re here now by the hangar, which was actually stored on part of the airfield.  

In 1994, the first SR.N4 arrived onsite - Swift - so that was really I suppose the first hovercraft to actually be on the current site where we are now i.e. by the hangars. 

Julian [00:20:32] Right, and I certainly urge any of our listeners to pay The Hovercraft Museum a visit, because it’s a fascinating place full of a wonderful collection of machines, some of which are pretty weird and wacky. But it does really give you an insight into the history of this unique machine. 

So you mentioned a moment ago Doug an SR.N4, and perhaps it’s the right time to explain that we are sitting recording this podcast in an SR.N4. This one has a name, it’s Princess Anne which is a Mountbatten class hovercraft, the biggest hovercraft that's ever existed in fact and one of several which ran across the channel. So can you take us back a few decades to the 60s Doug and tell us a little more about this amazing machine and how it developed? 

Doug Yes certainly. So, six SR.N4 craft ended up being built and yes it was actually the biggest commercial hovercraft in the world. So the first one - the Princess Margaret - started trials in 1968, in February 1968. They were known as the Mountbatten class in recognition of the contribution Lord Mountbatten made to the hovercraft industry, so as originally built the cost of an SR.N4, I understand, was £1.75m. By 1977, the cost of an SR.N3 Mk3 i.e. the stretching, had apparently increased to £14m. 

Julian [00:22:24] And the stretching you mention there was quite an extraordinary process in itself because what they did at the time was took an SR.N4, already a large hovercraft - they literally cut it in half and inserted a sort of 50 foot extra section so there was suddenly a much larger, longer craft. And that’s the form in which the Princess Anne sits here today. Is that right? 

Doug Yes absolutely that, so yes 1977-78 the two craft the two Seaspeed craft - the Princess Anne and the Princess Margaret - were lengthened yes by 55 feet. Capacity was raised from 254 passengers to 418 passengers and from 30 cars to around 60 cars. So yes so the original length was 130 feet and then increased to 185 feet, and a dead weight of 320 tonnes.  

But the increased payload only had a 15% increase in operating costs so it was actually sort of very beneficial sort of extending the craft. 

Julian So, the Princess Anne and her sister craft operated for many years across the channel carrying millions of passengers up until the end of the last century. 

Doug Yes that’s right, so yes the M40 the six craft in fleet altogether, well this was Seaspeed and Hoverloid, then the two companies merged to become Hoverspeed. But SR.N4s ran continually for over 30 years up until 2000. 

Julian And what was it that led to them stopping running across the channel? 

Doug So by that period the channel tunnel was coming in. Also the craft were getting on a little bit so you know the operating costs, older technology. But they still held their own on the channel, but yes basically there was an increase in competition from larger more modern vessels, you know the Seacats, ferries could carry more freight. As I say, the increasing costs of fuel, the channel tunnel, but really we understand that the final nail in the coffin was the abolition of duty-free which obviously hit profits. So that was really when it was decided then that the hovercraft would be withdrawn. 

Julian [00:25:11] And I think that the craft were probably fairly anti-social neighbours as well because they were pretty noisy weren’t they? 

Doug Yes they were, I think everybody learned to live with the noise but undoubtedly yes, I think at Pegwell Bay in Dover especially, yes they were known for their noise which perhaps not everybody liked but they were loved and very popular. But as I say I think it was just the time then, sort of reasons mentioned, that it was seen fit to retire them. 

Julian And so since they were retired, a number of these giant hovercraft have ended up at The Hovercraft Museum at one time or another. Is it three of them that have been here? 

Doug Yes that’s correct, so half the fleet have been here at The Hovercraft Museum yes. So, there was the Hoverloid craft - Swift - she was brought here in 1994 and she survived a decade. We were only obviously, you know, space was a limiting thing and whilst it would have been lovely to have had every craft, you know the three SR.N4s that came here, we were only ever going to be able to unfortunately be able to keep one.  

So the Swift basically went to make way for the two Mk3 craft. At the time, the museum was promised one of the Mk3s which didn’t happen straight away because Hoverspeed were wanting to sell the craft when the two crafts - so that was the Princess Margaret and the Princess Anne - the two craft that arrived in 2000. They were eventually sold to a private owner and it wasn't until some time later that we were able to then get our hands on the Princess Anne and start doing work to preserve her - paint her, preserve her and open her to the public, which wasn’t able to happen for some years. 

Julian [00:27:09] Yeah it’s great to see and hear the fact that you are working to keep her and maintain her for future generations to see because they are really quite spectacular craft.  

What’s the future for the museum now? Are there development plans ahead for you? 

Doug The site has new owners, yes recently has gone to a new owner, a new developer - they will be working with us to preserve the museum. We don’t know all the details yet but we are assured that the museum will stay. We don't know you know whether we can keep all the exhibits, hopefully we can, but they are keen to work with us and obviously the Princess Anne will remain definitely a sort of a centre stage here. I mean you know there’s no way she can be moved anywhere so she is here to stay and she will become part of the development here. We don’t know completely yet exactly how the new development will form, but it’s certainly, you know I think will certainly play a centre part in the attractions, whether that’s you know retail, restaurants or whatever but I think it’s you know, hopefully it should be quite exciting for the future for the museum the fact that we can stay here and remain a sort of a key attraction here on the south coast. 

Julian Yeah, it’s a great prospect and well worth the visit. 

Doug [00:28:37] Yes absolutely, I mean we’re lucky that here we’ve got a couple of hangars that are listed anyway so they will remain. At least two of the hangars if not more of them I believe, and they will form part of the local attractions in whatever way the developers can tie it in. But yeah a lot of potential really you know, so we will hopefully remain a sort of a key attraction.  

Julian Yes, sounds like there’s a great future ahead for the museum, and what about the future for hovercraft? We spoke a few minutes ago about why the giant hovercraft crossing the channel came to an end, and probably most of us don’t often see hovercraft these days. Are there still many hovercraft being designed, built and operated around the world now? 

Doug [00:29:26] Yes. I mean hovercraft I think are always a bit of a niche thing and what you’ve got to remember really is in this country we pretty much have the infrastructure, you know the ports and places for ships and things, but of course there are a lot of places in the world that are less developed. They don’t have the infrastructure and of course that’s where hovercraft come into their own so, you know, hovercraft are being exported I mean Griffin Hoverwork are currently building an order worth in excess of £25m. They’re building three hovercraft for export to Japan, so whilst you might not necessarily see many hovercraft, obviously you know we have the cross Solent hovercraft, the longest established hovercraft service in the world, but people often say to us “oh you know are hovercraft a dying breed?”. Well no they’re always still there but to say quite a few have been exported and that’s not just Griffin Hoverwork. Griffin Hoverwork, they are the world’s largest builder of medium to large sized hovercraft. Then there is also another company that builds leisure craft or smaller craft for leisure and survey and again they’re exporting. So yeah, hovercraft are always around, I mean probably you know they’re not going to be built in their 1000s necessarily but the hovercraft are out there. I mean in the United States a large fleet of landing craft, air cushion craft or LCAC, are being built there to replace the current fleet, I think we’re talking around 100 craft for the US Navy. So, they are out there, yes! Yeah, they are out there. 

Julian Yeah, it’s great to know that although you know perhaps the days of these giant craft like the one we’re sitting in are over, that the hovercraft amphibious capabilities are still making it useful and valuable in some parts of the world.  

Excellent, so one last question I had to ask you Doug is, do you think hovercraft is a boat or a plane? 

Doug Really, it probably can be more regarded as a boat these days. They are sometimes referred to as, probably the earlier hovercraft tended to more be referred to as a low flying aircraft if you like, but that’s through the technology used at the time - the engines and the construction and the background of the pilots. Whereas nowadays with modern hovercraft, modern materials, the larger craft are built of welded aluminium, marine grade aluminium. Diesel engines tend to be also found in boats so I think yeah tend to be more regarded as a boat if anything now, yes. You know, hovercraft captains are pilots with a maritime background, yeah. 

Julian Ah, thank you and also thank you so much Doug for spending the time today to show me this fantastic museum and for giving our listeners lots of background on the hovercraft and the museum. Thank you. 

Doug [00:32:39] Thank you very much. 

Outro We hope you enjoyed listening to today's episode. If you would like to find out a little bit more about what we've been talking about, then please visit the website, www.winchesterheritagopendays.org. Click on Hampshire HistBites, and there you'll find today show notes as well as some links to more information. Thank you.