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This is the story of how private foreign enterprise in the form of
Swedish Lloyd and Swedish America Line, who formed a British
company called 'Hoverlloyd', galvanised the British Government in
to supporting this new concept in transport through the formation
of a British Rail subsidiary called 'Seaspeed'. It is a story, told
by those who were there, of how young adventurous men and women,
most of whom were in their twenties and early thirties, took on the
exciting challenge of getting an operation, in which they all
believed had a great future, off the ground. It tells of the
difficulties and near disasters, through lack of experience, that
nearly wrote off the industry in the early days; the clashes of
cultures between the free enterprise and Government operations; and
why, after so much early promise, the great adventure with the
giant car and passenger carrying hovercraft came to an end. The
story begins with the history of Saunders Roe and their involvement
as a result of the discovery by Christopher Cockerell in 1953 that
big weights could be supported on a cushion of low pressure air and
that the concept could be practically applied. Much has already
been written about Christopher Cockerell, later Sir Christopher,
and the development of the hovercraft by Saunders Roe, as well as
the hovercraft industry to the present day. Those relevant parts
showing the frustrations and disappointments they too suffered are
repeated in this book, together with new material that has come to
light, to provide a comprehensive narrative of the hovercraft
industry and the giant SR.N4 cross-Channel operations.
This is the story of how private foreign enterprise in the form of
Swedish Lloyd and Swedish America Line, who formed a British
company called 'Hoverlloyd', galvanised the British Government in
to supporting this new concept in transport through the formation
of a British Rail subsidiary called 'Seaspeed'. It is a story, told
by those who were there, of how young adventurous men and women,
most of whom were in their twenties and early thirties, took on the
exciting challenge of getting an operation, in which they all
believed had a great future, off the ground. It tells of the
difficulties and near disasters, through lack of experience, that
nearly wrote off the industry in the early days; the clashes of
cultures between the free enterprise and Government operations; and
why, after so much early promise, the great adventure with the
giant car and passenger carrying hovercraft came to an end. The
story begins with the history of Saunders Roe and their involvement
as a result of the discovery by Christopher Cockerell in 1953 that
big weights could be supported on a cushion of low pressure air and
that the concept could be practically applied. Much has already
been written about Christopher Cockerell, later Sir Christopher,
and the development of the hovercraft by Saunders Roe, as well as
the hovercraft industry to the present day. Those relevant parts
showing the frustrations and disappointments they too suffered are
repeated in this book, together with new material that has come to
light, to provide a comprehensive narrative of the hovercraft
industry and the giant SR.N4 cross-Channel operations.
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