On A Cushion Of Air: The Story Of Hoverlloyd And The Cross-Channel
Hovercraft

Product Description

This is the story of how private foreign enterprise in the form of Swedish Lloyd & 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 & women most of whom were in their twenties & 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 & near disasters through lack of experience that nearly wrote off the industry in the early days; the clashes of cultures between the free enterprise & Government operations; & why after so much early promise the great adventure with the giant car & passenger carrying hovercraft came to an end The story begins with the history of Saunders Roe & 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 & that the concept could be practically applied Much has already been written about Christopher Cockerell later Sir Christopher & the development of the hovercraft by Saunders Roe as well as the hovercraft industry to the present day Those relevant parts showing the frustrations & 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 & the giant SRN4 cross-Channel operations