Hovercraft
Aerodeslizador
- Date
- 1955 · confidence high
- Place
- Somerleyton, Suffolk, England, United Kingdom
- Credited to
- Christopher Cockerell
- Field
- Movement
What it is
Cockerell, a former radio engineer, used coffee tins and a hairdryer to show that a low-pressure air cushion, contained by an annular jet, could support a vehicle over water or land with almost no friction. He filed his patent in 1955, and the SR.N1 prototype first hovered in 1959.
The design was classified as a military secret for several years before it could be developed commercially.
What it led to
- Regular cross-Channel hovercraft ferry services (until 2000)
- Military and rescue use over amphibious terrain
- Ground-effect vehicles derived from the same principle