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to Hovercraft? Want to know they work? How they've over time? Take the Follow the buttons below to guide you along the way from the early days of the hovercraft right up to the present day.
This site is dedicated to hovercraft of past and present, the history of the hovercraft, and a bit about how hovercraft work and what their various parts do. As you browse around using the navigation bar on the left, or take the Hovercraft Tour (above) for a wander through the ages of hovercraft, you can click on small images to bring up a proper, zoomed-in version. Wherever a reference is used within the site the source is cited, e.g., [Rowson, 2006] and its corresponding publication details are in the Bibliography.
This site is kept alive by the kind contributions of visitors, and as such I am always looking for anyone with new content to come forward. If you have anything you think could be worthwhile adding to the site, that is any experiences you've had of the hovercraft, or any photos or videos you'd like to "donate", or your model hovercraft construction stories/photos, I would be very grateful if you could get in touch with me through the Contact Form.
The last commercial flights of the supersonic jetliner Concorde were on the 24th October 2003. To commemorate these and the history of Concorde, a great feat of engineering and a beautiful aircraft, I have set up the JHS Concorde Site at www.jameshovercraft.co.uk/concorde.
Do you have a hovercraft-related photo you'd like to appear here? If so, drop me a line by filling in my Contact Form!
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Two Tiger 4 hovercraft on the Larsen B ice shelf, Antarctica, in 1987/8 with the British Antarctic Survey. Tiger 4 in Antarctica Gallery.
To buy a hovercraft, or make your company known to the Internet, Visit the "Buy a Hovercraft " page for a list of companies and featured companies. A 'Free-Ads' section of the site for anyone wanting to sell or buy a hovercraft can be found in Private Advertisements. Companies or individuals selling or wanting to buy hovercraft related products (such as vouchers for trial rides, activity days, etc.) visit the Hover Related Products page.
The weather is big in the news of today. All the time we're seeing floods due to snowmelt, or unseasonal rainfall, even sea level rise. This doesn't just affect "3rd world" countries like (for example) Bangladesh and African countries, it also has an equally devastating effect potentially on "1st world countries" like the US, UK, European countries.
There's not a lot we can do about it.
Therefore we have to find ways to cope with what might happen in perhaps 10 years down the line when our towns built on river deltas or reclaimed land start to flood.
Imagine the possible environment for a moment. Roads will be useless, because they'll be flooded and muddy. Well, travel by boat then, you might say. No, because the water's too shallow for a powerboat, too muddy and full of reeds for propellers to operate in. So, what's the answer? Well, in my view, there's only one transport method that can really provide a cheap, and versatile means of moving around, that being of course, the hovercraft. It's been around for years, over 40 in fact, on a large scale, yet few people use them to get around.
I'm not saying that behemoths like the SRN4 should be reinvented for mass public transportation, but smaller craft like those offered by Griffon, Hover-Shuttle, and Australian Hovercraft (to name but a few companies) would be ideal.
Already, craft built by Griffon are in use by the British RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institute) on the mud flats in and around the UK, river estuaries, tidal bays and so on, and have saved many lives. These are small craft, about 6-8 seaters, which can go over land, sea, and mud.
They're a success! Is this what we need in the future? Is this what we need now? Only time will tell, but in my opinion it could well be better to be safe than sorry.
Page updated:
08/18/2010
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James' Hovercraft Site is not affiliated in any way with The Hovercraft Museum, Hoverspeed, Sea Containers or British Airways. The intent of the two sites (JHS Concorde Site and James' Hovercraft Site) is for them to be built up by contributions from viewers: photos, pictures, data, information, stories, video captures and more are all very welcome. If you have any comments, questions or issues regarding this website, its content, or anything about hovercraft, please use the "Questions or Feedback about this Site or Page " link at the top-right of each page.
Website design, layout, background and non page-credited images, including main logo are © James Rowson 1999 - 2010. If I have missed crediting an image that is not mine, I apologise, please contact me using the contact form regarding the matter. If you wish to publish images or information credited to a person or publishers that aren't myself, I can try to get their contact details for you, otherwise I wouldn't be able to personally grant you permission to use such data.
James' Hovercraft Site is not responsible for the content of externally linked pages and websites. |
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