Much mystery, myth and legend concerns Oulton Broads place in the history of the Hovercraft.

Christopher Cockerell set up his first boat building company in Oulton Broad and had his workshop on Saltside Mutford bridge opposite the small roundabout.

Whilst Cockerell and his wife worked here he worked out the mathematical formula for lift and thrust which where to become theory for the hovercraft.

During this time he rented day boats to tourists from the free quay on the freshwater side. This was very unpractical, as he had to often walk across the bridge with fuel to refill his crafts.

However whilst in Oulton Broad he met A.D Truman who owned a boatyard near the Maltings on Oulton Broad. Truman specialised in lightweight racing craft, and could produce very thin, strong and lightweight material. It is a measure of Cockerell’s trust and friendship with Truman, that he gave him the plans to the prototype of the hovercraft before patenting them. Truman took these plans and built the prototype for Cockerell. Much of the historic detail was shrouded in mystery for 50 years as the successful test flight led to the project being snapped up by the government as top secret.

The first test flight took place at Somerleyton Hall where today a plaque commemorates the achievement.

The Background to the History of the hovercraft

It goes back farther than you might think. . .

1716 - EMMANUEL SWEDENBORG, philosopher and lateral thinker dreamed up the idea of an air cushion vehicle, which would be powered by very enthusiastic oarsmen. Good idea, but the power sources were unavailable for comment.

1870 - JOHN THORNYCROFT experimented with a boat, which was designed to move along on an air film trapped under its hull. Great idea, but the steam engine power source was not up to the task.

1916 - DAGOBERT MULLER, from Austria, built an air film torpedo boat. Great invention, great name, but unfortunately 1916 was not a great year for Austria and with the First World War in full swing it was dropped.

1950s - Dr WILLIAM BARTELSON, a country doctor in America devised and built a series of 'air cars', which he called 'Ground Effect Machines', in order to get around the problem of visiting patients in the more waterlogged parts of his practice. He, and other enthusiasts, were beaten to the patent punch in England by CHRISTOPHER COCKERELL, who was, after years of intense British indifference, credited as the inventor of the hovercraft. Cockerell approached various aircraft and ship building firms with his idea, but no one wanted to know, because no one could decide what his invention actually WAS. When it was built his first model and took it to the corridors of power and the Men at the Ministry immediately slapped a 'Top Secret' label on it.

It was only after they heard that OTHER countries were developing similar vehicles that the invention was FINALLY allocated to Saunders Roe, (flying boat manufacturers) to develop in conjunction with the National Research Development Corporation. Finally, in May 1959 the SRN1 flew for the first time.

1960s - DECADE OF THE HOVERCRAFT - America gave us the moon landings and the Monkees. We gave the world the Beatles, Carnaby Street, the World Cup Winners in 1966, 'Wonderloaf', Alf Garnett, and Hovercraft.
In the '60s the hovercraft went from being a garden sized flying cup and saucer (the SRN1 was also known as 'the Flying Saucer') to a cross-channel passenger and car ferry giant.

These were the years when hovercraft were 'cool', and often reported as 'an exciting new form of transport that will revolutionise the way we travel'. This was when the classic designs came forth. They were aircraft technology vehicles. They smelt and sounded like aircraft, could go as fast as speedboats and could go where no ship, car, tractor, tank, ambulance or bus had ever gone before - and all without being called 'Enterprise' .

All the enduring designs of hovercraft happened in these ten years. Apart from tweaks in the technology, little has changed since.
Saunders Roe and Westland gave us the beautiful SRN2, the Bulldog Drummond style military SRN3, the 'workhorse' SRN5 and the 'stretched' workhorse number two, the multi-purpose SRN6. Finally the two companies merged to become The British Hovercraft Corporation and went on to build the mighty SRN4 and eventually develop the military BH7.

Vickers Armstrong had also been working on hovercraft design throughout the late 1950s and had come up with the experimental VA1, the Jeep-ishly functional VA2 and the first passenger ferry, the VA3.

While Hovercraft Development Ltd kept on developing the air cushion vehicle, other companies such as Denny and Hovermarine devised water-borne 'sidewall' craft. Tracked hovercraft (which have YET to get off the ground, so to speak) were designed and tested, and hovercraft built from plywood and plastic with inflatable hulls started to appear. Vosper Thornycroft (boat builders famous for their WW2 torpedo boats and coastal craft) carried out pioneering work on semi amphibious craft. Meanwhile smaller companies like Pindair and Britten Norman contributed more than most people realize towards the modern boat styled air skimmers (just off the ground enough so that it matters) which proliferate to-day.

Proliferate? Where do they proliferate? you might ask. Well, apart from one or two famous exceptions, certainly not in the public passenger market! Which is sad because, statistically and historically, the hovercraft IS the safest form of transport in the world - EVER!
No, they play hidden roles in parts of the world that you and I have never heard of, exploring places with names I can't pronounce, and carrying out such work as geological or geographical studies. They are also used in offshore roles such as fast attack/patrol/landing craft. Now and then someone uses them for things like rescue vehicles and for humanitarian support missions. More often than not they are used for military purposes, and even now there are some very unusual hovering machines being developed 'behind closed doors' - and we are back to flying saucers again...

So now the best 'classic' hovercraft of the 1960s are consigned to the history books Most of these vehicles were made in relatively small numbers and do not exist anymore. The few originals are either rotting away fast, or are at the Hovercraft Museum in Lee on the Solent on the South Coast of England, where selfless volunteers do their best to preserve them.
Oh and by the way, if you are wondering if there is a hovercraft museum closer to you, then wonder no more; the museum at Lee on the Solent is the ONLY hovercraft museum in existence....anywhere...

In the meantime, racing hovercraft as a sport has been around for decades and is still flying strong to-day. There is also a growing world-wide interest in model hovercraft building and a model hovercraft racing fraternity is forming in various embryonic ways in various countries.

Still used today..

The SH2 (see right) is road transportable and available for Environmental surveys, sampling, coastal monitoring, dredging and civil engineering support, safety boat, film/TV camera platform. Hovercraft operate effectively over land, mud, water, sand, snow and ice.