A hovercraft, also known as an air-cushion vehicle or ACV, is an amphibious craft capable of travelling over land, water, mud, ice, and various other surfaces.
The SR.N4 hovercraft was a combined passenger and vehicle-carrying class of hovercraft. The type has the distinction of being the largest civil hovercraft to have ever been put into service.
Sir Christopher Sydney Cockerell CBE RDI FRS was an English engineer, best known as the inventor of the hovercraft.
East Cowes is a town and civil parish in the north of the Isle of Wight, on the east bank of the River Medina, next to its west bank neighbour Cowes. It has a population of 8,428 according to the 2021 Census.
Hoverspeed was a ferry company that operated on the English Channel from 1981 until 2005. It was formed in 1981 by the merger of Seaspeed and Hoverlloyd. Its last owners were Sea Containers; the company ran a small fleet of two high-speed SeaCat catamaran ferries in its final year.
Haldia is an industrial port city in Purba Medinipur district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It has a major river port and industrial belt located approximately 124 km (77 mi) southwest of Kolkata near the mouth of the Hooghly River, one of the distributaries of the Ganges. The Haldia Township is bordered by the Haldi River, an offshoot of the Ganges River. Haldia is a centre for petrochemical businesses, and is a major trade port for Kolkata.
Hovertravel is a ferry company operating from Southsea, Portsmouth to Ryde, Isle of Wight, UK. It is the largest passenger hovercraft company currently operating in the world since Hoverspeed stopped using its craft in favour of catamarans and subsequently ceased all ferry operations in 2005.
Pegwell Bay is a shallow inlet in the English Channel coast astride the estuary of the River Stour north of Sandwich Bay, between Ramsgate and Sandwich in Kent. Part of the bay is a nature reserve, with seashore habitats including mudflats and salt marsh with migrating waders and wildfowl. The public can access the nature reserve via Pegwell Bay Country Park, which is off the A256 Ramsgate to Dover road.
Ryde Transport Interchange or Gateway serves the town of Ryde, Isle of Wight, England.
Griffon Hoverwork Ltd (GHL) is a British hovercraft designer and manufacturer.
Southsea Hoverport is adjacent to Clarence Pier in the Southsea area of Portsmouth in southern England. From here frequent hovercraft services leave for Ryde on the Isle of Wight. The journey time is quicker than the conventional boats that sail from Gunwharf Quay, elsewhere in Portsmouth, but the hovercraft are more prone to service curtailment in inclement weather. Another problem are connections from here as when the service first started in the mid-20th century much of the land closer to Portsmouth and Southsea station was already occupied by both residential and naval units. To help alleviate this problem Stagecoach run the "Hoverbus" linking the terminal with Portsmouth and Southsea station and Portsmouth city centre. The nearest railway station is Portsmouth Harbour railway station, although Portsmouth and Southsea station is not much further away.
The N500 Naviplane was a French hovercraft built by Société d'Etude et de Développement des Aéroglisseurs Marins (SEDAM) in Pauillac, Gironde for the cross English Channel route. Intended to have a large passenger and crew capacity, it was for a while the largest hovercraft. Only two were built. The first was destroyed by a fire before entering service, the second proved unreliable and was broken up in 1985 at the end of its service.
The Port of Dover is a cross-channel ferry, cruise terminal, maritime cargo and marina facility situated in Dover, Kent, south-east England. It is the nearest English port to France, at just 34 kilometres (21 mi) away, and is one of the world's busiest maritime passenger ports, with 11.7 million passengers, 2.6 million lorries, 2.2 million cars and motorcycles and 80,000 coaches passing through it in 2017, and with an annual turnover of £58.5 million a year. This contrasts with the nearby Channel Tunnel, the only fixed link between the island of Great Britain and the European mainland, which now handles an estimated 20 million passengers and 1.6 million trucks per year.
The Port of Ramsgate is a harbour situated in Ramsgate, south-east England, serving cross-Channel freight traffic and smaller working and pleasure craft. It is owned and operated by Thanet District Council.
Cliffsend is a village and civil parish situated almost 2 miles (3 km) west of Ramsgate, Kent, United Kingdom, in the Thanet local government district.
Seaspeed was a British hovercraft operator which ran services in the Solent and English Channel between 1965 and 1981, when it merged with a rival to form Hoverspeed.
Hoverlloyd operated a cross-Channel hovercraft service between Ramsgate, England and Calais, France.
The Saunders-Roe SR.N6 hovercraft was essentially a larger version of the earlier SR.N5 series. It incorporated several features that resulted in the type becoming one of the most produced and commercially successful hovercraft designs in the world.
Water transport in Mumbai consists of ferries, hovercraft and catamarans.
The Ramsgate Hoverport or Ramsgate International Hoverport was the world's first purpose-built hoverport constructed on the coast at the village of Cliffsend, around 2 miles (3.2 km) from Ramsgate, with direct access to Pegwell Bay. The hoverport was purpose built in 1969 by hovercraft operator Hoverlloyd to serve the English Channel crossing market using SR.N4 hovercraft. It operated passenger services until 1982 following a merger with rival Seaspeed to form the combined Hoverspeed, and operated exclusively from Seaspeed's Dover hoverport. The site remained in use for administration and engineering until December 1987.
