The Last Surviving Giant Passenger Hovercraft 

I was laughing so much at the Concorde joke that I nearly missed the callback to the callback 😂

I worked for Hoverspeed for the summer season in 1982 when I was 18, the last year it flew from Ramsgate. I loved the job there, marshalling the cars on to the hovercraft. The last thing to go on to the 'craft before it set off, was a large suitcase-like box containing passenger manifests and vehicle numbers, etc., and one of us would be asked to hand it to the Car Deck crew before the door was raised. Occasionally, the Car Deck crew liked to have a laugh, and would "kidnap" the person handing over the box, and I was their victim on a couple of occasions. Instead of just taking the box from me, they'd ask me to pop in to the passenger area and hand it to one of the stewardesses, and then I'd get back to the car deck just in time to see the door seal shut! I was then whisked off for a round trip to Calais! The upside of this was that I'd then be able to get the daily Crew allowance of Duty Free (200 ciggies, plus a half bottle of spirits costing £2.50). On a couple of occasions, when travelling for Duty Free on the staff discount, I had the opportunity to make the trip on the Flight Deck, which was a fantastic experience, one I'll never forget; I was seated on the "Jump Seat" between the pilot and co-pilot, and given my own headset so that I could ask questions during the flight - fascinating and practically the only place where you can get a clear view of where we were going.

Good news! The Ryde to Southsea hovercraft isn’t the only one in the world anymore! The former hovercraft route in Japan from Oita City to Oita Airport has been re-established! And the ramp up to the airport terminal makes a 90 degree turn. So if you want to see hovercrafts drifting around a corner in ways only the Japanese can, it’s once again possible.

Your musical easter eggs are brilliant and delightful - hearing "No Air" brought a smile to my face.

I've lived most of my life in East Kent, and helped build Dover Hoverport back in the late 70s. (Now demolished.) We workers were allowed a look around the giant French craft Jean Bertin when it was making test flights. Every seat had a sick bag. 🤮 I never made a crossing on one. Later in life, I helped build the Channel Tunnel, which killed the hovercraft and the Seacat. (Known locally as the Sick-cat or the Vomit Comet.) It was fast, but rolled on a mill-pond. In between the two, I worked on the cross channel ferries. As you can probably tell, a lot of local jobs are tied to Europe, and always have been.

Thanks for helping my local museum out. They need support go visit everyone.

How many eels could be fit in that big hovercraft?

I loved the Hovercraft! A speedy journey, and the staff handled suitcases, which were so heavy in those days. Strange how man invented the wheel so long ago but centuries passed before someone had the bright idea of sticking them on suitcases! Another nice way to travel was the Night Ferry, very couth ❤❤❤

Thanks for the "Not actual footage" footnote, I was wondering which brand of bus catapult the company was using.

Living in Belgium as a kid in the 70’s, my parents would pack me and my brother up in the car and we would make the trip from Calais to Ramsgate with Hoverloyd most christmases. Absolutely loved it!! If the weather was bad though (and when isn’t it in the channel in winter!!) crossing times were so much slower as the hovercraft couldn’t cut through the waves like a traditional ferry. Thanks for the trip down memory lane Tim.

Thanks Tim. Brought back happy memories of a cross channel trip. I can still hear the sound of other passengers being very ill.

Tim consistently excels in delivering exceptional content. From the soundtrack "UFO" to the witty humor, it's always top-notch. Plus, there's usually something new to learn. I salute my fellow transport nerd!

Ahh the memory of the vibration, the regal rise up into the air as we set off and WOW! the acceleration and sheer thrill of the speed bombing across the channel. Yes, it was an amazing experience and I was lucky enough to go there and back twice.

In 1979, I toured England with a band. Afterwards, I rode the HOVERLLOYD hovercraft to Calais France. It was quite an experience that I will never forget. I treasure my photo standing in front of that beast. I was sorry to hear it came to an end. Everything that has a beginning, had an end. Thank you my British cousins for a wonderful tour and trip. Cheers

The use of a backing song titled ‘No Air’ over the dramatic ending of a story about hovercrafts was far too funny

I remember a day trip to Ramsgate as a sprog in the late 70’s when one of these huge craft came in. Watching your video brought back the memory of just standing there in awe watching this thing leave the water and seamlessly travelling on to the land.

I worked as an Immigration Officer at Ramsgate Hoverport, Pegwell Bay in 1970. Travelling in an SRN4 was like being on the top deck of a bus being driven off-road at speed in a thunderstorm. The experience was not kind to vehicles. There was many a Ford towed off with its Macpherson struts poking through the wings/bonnet and once, an old 2CV lost its engine. My how we laughed!

Saw these on holiday as a kid.... proper "Thunderbirds" spec !

I flew on that exact hovercraft several times as a kid. Nothing could prepare you for how loud, uncomfortable, shaky and AWESOME it was. It's difficult for me to get my head around the fact that there's a whole generation who have never seen a hovercraft and in some cases never even heard of them. For my generation it was as normal as the channel tunnel is now.

As a young boy I traveled to England with my parents very frequently and mostly on one of these. It was a wonderfull experience every time. ❤

Anything to do with boats hovercraft or sea travel you should have "The MariTIMe traveller" at the beginning 👍

Brilliant! Really interesting. Thanks

Looking for a hovercraft...sees sign reading "Hovercraft Museum"..."I _think_ this is it!"

I returned from France on the Princess Margaret in the mid 70’s. It was a school trip & we were all very excited. It certainly was more fun & quicker than the ferry we had taken on the outward journey. I seem to recall seeing the Princess Anne arriving in France. I will have a photo somewhere.

The Gerry Anderson music is well-welcomed!

Beautiful video. And beautiful machine.

I live in Calais, a few hundred meters from the hovercraft landing zone. Those f**kers were LOUD!!

Fabulous, thanks so much! I'm so glad one still exists! I was lucky enough to go on one of these aged about 12, on a day trip across the channel with my grandmother.

.... That's still more than your bottom can do. Genius!

Thanks for this. I remember taking the Hovercraft in the early 1970's. I do remember how noisy they were, but then you were not on for very long! I will put the museum on my list of places to visit.

3:24 "But that's still much more than YOUR bottom can do" 😳😂😂😂😂😅😅

This is so cool. The ancient advert posters! I still own some Matchbox Hovercrafts from my childhood. Thanks Tim, for the pictures and everything. See you soon --- Martin/Germany

I was lucky enough to travel on the Princess Anne back in the early 80's on my second trip out of the country. As an 8 year old it was like something out of Thunderbirds or Stingray, smoothly skimming over the waves to France. Thanks for the unexpected hit in the nostalgia, Tim!

I DID travel on that, thanks for the memories……they were great fun in their day!

It's so strange that the most futuristic vehicles ever operated are in the past. While technology has advanced and vehicles are more efficient, very few rival the ambition of the latter half of the 20th century.

children growing up in the US during the 60s and 70s were fascinated by these hovercraft

I crossed the channel on one of the stretched Hoverlloyd craft back in 1974. It was so rough the Seaspeed flights were cancelled but we set off. Never known such a bumpy ride in my life and everyone was holding their stomach to avoid throwing up. When we arrived, all the passengers were staggering and it's the only time I've seen green faces. A later trip in calm conditions was much more pleasant.

I went on the hovercraft a couple of times on day trips to France but more interestingly I have a friend who as a summer job during her time at university worked as a stewardess on the ones from Dover. Certainly a different uni job.

Having "No air" playing at the moment you tell about the hovercraft being no longer in use is just perfect

And I feel proud to say that we supplied Saunders Roe with our robust boat fasteners. We called them Nylets, the name being an amalgamation of the materials used, the body being tough 'Nylon' and a sheet or boat cover having 'eyelets' in them which located the cover to the fitting. Saunders Roe found they were ideal to secure the side skirts and facilitated easy removal of the skirts when required. We eventually stopped making them around the late 70s when demand dropped off but they had a good run and we also exported them to Europe and further afield, my father having invented and patented the fastener in 1958.

My stepfather was the production manager at BHC and he took me around the factory (I was about 7 or 8) when one of those SRN4s was having new skirts fitted. Got to climb up the ladder to the cockpit. I remember he used to bring home marketing booklets and stuff about the hovercraft which was great for a 7 year old. The factory later built BN Islander aircraft when hovercraft work was short. The Islander was in demand and BN didn't have capacity to meet demand. The BHC factory in Cowes is now a museum for classic boats.

I remember going to france on these, it was always a thrill when it lifted off and took to the water.

I think I rode on one of these when I was a boy (5 or 6) on a family trip to England (we lived in Germany at the time), would've been the late 70's. My dad says I screamed in fear at the sight of this noisy huge 'monster' coming out of the water. Eventually some treats calmed me down, apparantly.

I saw one in Belgium in the eighties, I think there was a line to Zeebrugge? I was a child but still remember it, very awesome machine.

"that's so much more than YOUR bottom could do" oh yeah? try me

Great film! I rode this back in the 1980s - very loud, very bumpy (I've never felt so sick in my life) but an incredible experience. The coolest thing was that, with the time change, we got to our destination 5 minutes before we left!

I built the 1/144 scale Airfix kit of the SRN4 as a boy. I still remember standing on Ryde Esplanade the year the Ryde-Southsea service started, when they used to come straight up the beach to unload. The racket was unbelievable.

I travelled by these as a child a couple of times in the 60s and 70s from Pegwell Bay and Dover. I remember watching as our craft came in on the 2nd trip with its skirt flapping - this meant a 2 hour delay whilst they fixed it. With the transit motorcaravan stowed in the bowels and tied down with enormous ratchet straps, we went to the passenger lounge. Here were glamorous ladies in pillbox hats, comfy aeroplane type seats, big windows and lots of leaflets for kids to collect. The trip was referred to as a 'flight' by the staff, and once underway, the spray ensured we saw nothing through the big windows! As an adult, I can understand why they didn’t last. As a kid - the smell of aviation fuel, the excitement of boarding, the glamorous ladies, the size of the thing, and the sheer NOISE - fantastic 😊

I absolutely love these things for their 60s futurism - a real throwback to the “what could have been” of that era’s tech optimism. On that note, I appreciated the highly appropriate lift-music covers of Gerry Anderson themes! I was lucky enough to travel on one of the extended ones in the early 90s. Hovercraft out, SeaCat back - it still did feel like the future to me as a child!

You would only travel by hovercraft once. The most unconfortable method of transport ever invented.

I went to school about a mile away from the Pegwell bay Hoverport when it opened in 1968, (I was 8) when they were coming in and leaving you could not here the teacher talking the windows rattled,it was bloody great, I heard they ended up putting tripple glazing in the houses in Pegwell bay, we lived in broadstairs which was 4 miles away and you could still hear them, I remember it being built, Dick Hampton's did the muck shift and they trucked the coal shale from a rail head at Richbough power station which came by train from Chislet Collery, and Cementaions built the Hoverport itself, I have some photos somewhere of that taken by my Dad the Sandwich rd was black with coal dust, you would not get away with it now, they were called The Prince Of Wales, Sir Christopher, Swift and Sure.(Hoverlloyd) Princess Anne and Princess Margaret (Seaspeed, British Rail) they held 20,000 liters of AV gas each and did about 2 round trips from pegwell to calias on that and had to fill up again.The Good old days.

Thank you for that. I used HoverSpeed once in each direction across the Channel. My trip to Calais from Dover was exceedingly smooth, but as loud as any turboprop plane cabin inside. "Takeoff" and "landing" were similar to the first/last few feet of a helicopter ride. Synching of the propellers had to be really good, because the lateral shaking was minor, if almost teeth-chatteringly intense at mid-RPMs. Departure from Dover was like leaving a seaside airport tarmac in a low-flying jumbo jet. In contrast, the arrival in Calais felt more like a beach landing in a very large inflatable raft, it was that simple. The return trip from Boulogne-Sur-Mer would be hair-raising. A strong cross-wind on the Channel created choppy water, so HoverSpeed announced we would be running up the coast to Calais first, before turning toward Dover. If you've ever been in a lake boat going full-out on a windy day, such that spray came up over you as you clomped across the waves, that would describe the feeling. There was a certain amount of roll and pitching up and down for a good 2/3 of the journey. The airbags would seem to rise and fall as the cabin lurched from side to side. Comparable in fact to in-flight turbulence at any height. No doubt safe, but still unnerving given the novelty of it all. I don't recall which hovercrafts I rode on, but one could very well have been the "Princess Anne".

I can remember taking an old camper based on a Commer van across to France by Hoverloyd. There was an area to book for slightly higher vehicles which we was fine. The motion at speed was really odd, whereas a ship is up and down front to back and left to right the SRN4 would lift and fall in any direction with no rhythm , a giant fairground ride, I found it fantastic others didn't. Thank you so much for reminding me of such a brilliant journey.

I always wanted to go on a hovercraft as a kid, but didn't get the chance until I quite recently took my own kids on the Portsmouth-IOW one. It was rather a disappointment - noisy and incredibly bumpy (I had imagined that floating over the water would make them smooth, but no, it's like you can feel every single wave smacking into your bottom), couldn't see a thing out of the filthy windows, and the interior was about as luxurious, comfortable, and stylish, as a 1980s municipal bus.

I’m pretty sure I rode Princess Anne back in the early nineties. Great fun but very loud and the experience was over all too quickly. Brilliant that she has been preserved in a museum.

I flew on most of the SRN4s out of Dover - you could do a Non landing trip for about £5 per person but got a full duty free allowance! Could usually get 3 trips in during the morning followed by a ferry in the adlfternoon! I had an amazing time and loved every second of it! (On a good day you could also pick up the jetfoil to oostend and bac!!!)

In the late '60's my family travelled to France in an old Bedford CF van, my father had converted into a 'camper van'.(plywood bench seats with no belts, and a portaloo behind a curtain) We parked in the cavernous hold before climbing a short stairway to comfortable airplane-style seats.The ride was amazing, and even the crazy bumping couldn't erase the smiles from the smartly dressed hostesses or three excited kids. One could only see spray from the windows sadly, and walking to the loo was like a fairground ride, but for us it was wonderful.

I onced stayed at a holiday home in Spain next to two English pensioners who lived in Spain. For some reason we came to talk about channel crossings and the woman mentioned she had only gone on the hovercraft once. They weren't allowed to be operated during choppy seas, but apparently that particular day it was a split decision and the weather got worse as they went. She only went to the toilet when the hovercraft left and failed to pull up her knickers again, until they had reached the destination. It was so rumbly. As you can imagine, she wasn't too fond of hovercraft and prefered the ferry, or later the tunnel.

Cheers, mush! This is one of my favourite museums. The kids love it. It's a much bigger site than it looks from the entrance.

"My hovercraft is full of eels" - John Cleese

Still one of the coolest things ever made!

They were fast, but not fast enough! One prayed for the the motion, vibration, noise, lack of visibility through the spray and general vomit smell to end.

Visitors to the museum could combine it with a trip on the Southsea - Ryde service to complete the day. I went on the SRN4 back in 1974. The noise wasn't that bad considering we were travelling across the Channel at 60mph! I did some commuting on the cross-Solent service in the 1990s and it was fast, convenient and quieter. They are powered by diesel engines unlike the SRN4s which used the 1950s aero engines. I suppose in theory that the SRN4s could have been re-engined with diesels but by the late-90s the hulls were over 30 years old. A college friend of mine was working at BHC when the SRN4s were stretched and he said that when they opened them up they were surprised by the high levels of corrosion. I can't imagine what state they were in after several more decades of cross-Channel service!

7:41 Nice use of Modest Mouse's "Float On." 😁

As little boys we loved the hovercrafts. Not a boat, not a plane and not a car and yet all of this together, of course that was the dream of any 6 year old. And every boy had at least the matchbox version of a hovercraft. I remember remotely a children's TV show from the mid 1970s about children making their own hovercrafts from scrap.

I've never had the opportunity to travel on the SRN4, but I have done the HoverTravel service to the Isle of Wight - they apparently had some issues with the then brand new Griffon 12000TD craft (I suspect that they were having trouble getting the eels out) so they loaded us on to the old Freedom 90 instead for the return trip.

The U.F.O. theme, neat. Classic TV.

Lol the UFO theme music playing

I am not from the south of England, but I travelled south to travel on these to Boulogne, and then connected into the fantastic SNCF Yellow Grey Turbotrains onto Paris, The Hovercraft were noisy, (as were the Turbo Trains were too for that matter) and the spray meant the view was restricted depending on how the hovercraft turned, I still have a blue ticket wallet that Hoverspeed gave you for tickets and documents for your crossing I remember these with great fondness, along with the 2 x Jetfoils that went from Dover to Oostende ( as long as the sea was not too rough, then you were simply moved on to the normal ferry) This is a great video Tim Thank You, I really enjoyed it and evoked many happy memories.

Beautiful machine(s)! It looks like it came straight out of the Thunderbirds!

2:54 Impressed that you kept the Princess Anne joke clean 😂

Ooh, using 'Surfing on a Rocket' by Air as some background music. Nice touch.

For having crossed between France and UK and back on hovercraft, when I was a teenager in the 70;s, I can confirm that was amazing.

I travelled on one of them from Dover to France. Hoverspeed

Im filled with regret never having crossed the channel to england on one. Granted I was a toddler when in ceased business and didnt have a great leevay of agency, but still.

Remarkable machines - imagine seeing one of these things roaring out of the Channel on a misty morning. What a sight that must've been! Just the look of the things is amazing - as a big Star Wars fan, they look like something the Empire would build. Imagine one painted grey, with a squadron of Stormtroopers marching out of that ramp at the front, and you'll get an idea of the image in my mind!

Never been on one, but had a 1980s book as a kid with a cutaway of this beauty, showing all the insides, drawn in watercolour. I had no idea there was a hovercraft museum and they have one! I'm gonna have to put it on my bucket list now.

Went to the Goodwin Sands on one of these. The noise was intense.

No idea a museum like this existed. What fun! Have on my list now.

I've crossed the channel by Ferry, Chunnel, and hovercraft. Definitely an experience. Up front, in a bit of chop was very nausuliating.

Why did the submarine blush? Because it saw Princess Anne's bottom... I'll let myself out

What a sad ending to an amazing piece of machinery. Left me feeling quite deflated.

I was talking about this last month how we were using this to cross the channel when I was a child, and now you make a video about it. how nice 🙂 I remember the horrible fuel smell I think we went twice with the hovercraft. 🙂 oh and it was only like half an hour, and it was quite nice. I don't remember it as something horrible at least. Now we need another video of the seacat catamarans that ran until 2005. I liked those more then the channel tunnel. It was quite a thing cruising with 80 km/h over the channel.

Always appreciate your tasteful use of Gerry Anderson music

Loved the UFO theme tune, which is also my ringtone. Actually picked up my phone and said "hello? HELLO?"

I flew on the SRN4 a couple of times holidaying to France. It was like being rolled around inside a barrel. I believe the reason the SRN4's were extended was not only to increase capacity but because the original length was the same as the typical pitch of a channel swell. By increasing the length they hoped to reduce the pitching motion. It didn't work very well,,,,

In 1982 my wife-to-be and I flew ourselves and our motorcycle from our home in Canada to London on our way to visit my relatives in Italy. On the day we were due to cross the channel, we were chatting over breakfast with an Australian couple sharing our B&B. They advised us not to order drinks if we took the hovercraft. As it happens we crossed by ship on our way out, but we did take the hovercraft on our way back. The first clue that this might not be smooth sailing was how tight the workers tied the bike down. The attendants offered us drinks immediately into our "flight", but we declined based on the advice we had received. OMG, was it ever the right move: as soon as we were out in open waters the ride became incredibly rough: imagine being in an airplane flying through continuous turbulence. Now imagine trying to drink something while in that airplane flying through continuous turbulence. A unique and worthwhile experience, but very much not a comfortable one and a potentially messy one. Maybe it was just full of eels ?

Great to see they preserved one of them. I always regret not going on them when they were in service but at least we can still enjoy them over to the Isle of Wight.

Love it. I crossed the channel on the Princess Margaret on 26th June 1987, yes it was noisy but so much faster than the ferries and effectively replaced the Golden Arrow train London to Paris before getting on what was left of the Orient Express which by then only went as far as Bucharest

A fascinating trip down memory lane - Thank you. Living in Hampshire in the 1960s, we often took the (SRN6) service from Southampton (where the Itchen Bridge now spans the river) across to Cowes on the IoW. On occasions on the run into Cowes, we would pass one or more SRN4s moored out in the Solent. Happy days.

I visited this amazing museum back in 2019. They have indeed got a wonderful collection of hovercraft, but the star of the show has to be the magnificent SRN-4. Standing on the car deck you can't help but be awestruck by the immense size of the craft, sadly I never got to see one in action or ride aboard one but I'm glad one has been preserved so I had the opportunity to visit it and look around inside.

Living in Portsmouth growing up I had no idea how special the hovercrafts were

Are any of them full of eels?

I live in Hampshire and it's nice to see Tim pay a visit to one of Britain's most niche museums! The people who run the Hovercraft Museum are all very passionate and its very reasonably priced! Well worth a visit

Truly the Concorde of the seas.

Several times in the 1980s and 1990s have I been on these Hovercrafts, and I really liked it. Travelling through the Tunnel is boring, in comparison. An interesting alternative (albeit only without car) was the Jetfoil service between Ostend and Calais.

As a british brat living in belgium, my parents used hovercraft to get there and back every month. I remember lots of people been sick, however we were used to it so sat at the front laughing and cheereing. Others were not amused. 😮

Ah I remember these very fondly from family holidays in the 70s and 80s. Yes they were quite noisy, but boy did it feel amazing zipping along at 60-70mph at an altitude of 2 feet!

I suddenly feel a lot better about my extensive lego collection.

I rode my Vespa 200 from Glasgow to Dover (enroute to Switzerland) just to get a go in the Hovercraft before being decomissioned. Think it was the last year they ran. I remember how bumpy the crossing was, I spilt my juice all over the place.