Hovertravel is a ferry company operating from

Southsea Southsea is a seaside resort and a geographic area of Portsmouth, Portsea Island in England. Southsea is located 1.8 miles (2.8 km) to the south of Portsmouth's inner city-centre. Southsea is not a separate town as all of Portsea Island's s ...

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

Ryde Ryde is an English seaside town and civil parish on the north-east coast of the Isle of Wight. The built-up area had a population of 23,999 according to the 2011 Census and an estimate of 24,847 in 2019. Its growth as a seaside resort came af ...

, Isle of Wight, UK. It is the only passenger hovercraft company currently operating in Britain since

Hoverspeed 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 Sea ...

stopped using its craft in favour of

catamarans A Formula 16 beachable catamaran Powered catamaran passenger ferry at Salem, Massachusetts, United States A catamaran () (informally, a "cat") is a multi-hulled watercraft featuring two parallel hulls of equal size. It is a geometry-stab ...

and subsequently ceased all ferry operations in 2005. Hovertravel is now the world's oldest hovercraft operator, and this service is believed to be unique in western Europe. Hovertravel has claimed that it is the world's only commercial passenger hovercraft service. The operator's principal service operates between Southsea Common on the English mainland and Ryde Transport Interchange on the Isle of Wight: the crossing time of less than 10 minutes makes it the fastest route across

The Solent The Solent ( ) is a strait between the Isle of Wight and Great Britain. It is about long and varies in width between , although the Hurst Spit which projects into the Solent narrows the sea crossing between Hurst Castle and Colwell Bay to ...

from land to land. This service commenced operations in 1965, Hovertravel currently operates two 12000TD hovercraft on a single route between Ryde and Southsea. Additionally, Hovertravel has frequently operated other routes throughout the United Kingdom, typically as charter services.

History

During the late 1950s and early 1960s, British inventor Sir Christopher Cockerell had, in cooperation with British aerospace manufacturer

Saunders-Roe Saunders-Roe Limited, also known as Saro, was a British aero- and marine-engineering company based at Columbine Works, East Cowes, Isle of Wight. History The name was adopted in 1929 after Alliott Verdon Roe (see Avro) and John Lord took a c ...

, developed a pioneering new form of transportation, embodied in the form of the experimental SR.N1 vehicle, which became widely known as the hovercraft.Paine and Syms 2012, p. 82. British manufacturer Saunders-Roe proceeded with work on various hovercraft designs, successfully developing multiple commercially viable vehicles in the mid-1960s. These included the

SR.N4 The SR.N4 (Saunders-Roe Nautical 4) hovercraft (also known as the ''Mountbatten'' class hovercraft) was a combined passenger and vehicle-carrying class of hovercraft. The type has the distinction of being the largest civil hovercraft to have ...

, a large cross- Channel ferry capable of seating up to 418 passengers along with 60 cars, and the SR.N5, the first commercially-active hovercraft.Paine and Syms 2012, pp. 238, 595. Ryde Pier Head hovercraft geograph-3212359-by-Ben-Brooksbank

Ryde Pier Head hovercraft geograph-3212359-by-Ben-Brooksbank

Hovertravel first commenced operations during July 1965, initially leasing a pair of SR.N6 hovercraft, a stretched model of the SR.N5 capable of seating up to 38 passengers, from the British Hovercraft Corporation (BHC). An initial service between

and

Stokes Bay Stokes Bay ( grid ref.:)) (50.782982, -1.163868) is an area of the Solent that lies just south of Gosport, between Portsmouth and Lee-on-the-Solent, Hampshire. There is a shingle beach with views of Ryde and East Cowes on the Isle of Wight to the ...

, Gosport, was established. At its onset, it was planned to run a seasonal summer service to provide a unique experience orientated towards tourists visiting the region; despite this intention, a high level of regular travellers and commuters used the service to the extent that a year-round service became viable. Early on, Hovertravel faced direct competition from another hovercraft operator, the British Rail-owned

Seaspeed 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. Seaspeed was a jointly owned subsidiary of railway companies British Rail ( ...

with its rival Cowes-

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

route. Eventually, Hovertravel took over running of the route on behalf of Seaspeed; however, in 1980, the decision was taken to discontinue the Cowes-Southampton service due to rising costs and increased competition from

Red Funnel Red Funnel, the trading name of the Southampton Isle of Wight and South of England Royal Mail Steam Packet Company Limited,hydrofoils, instead concentrating its resources on the Ryde-Southsea service, which was viewed as being more viable. In addition to its scheduled services, Hovertravel was also quick to enter the charter market. Its hovercraft proved to be of particular value to

hydrocarbon exploration Hydrocarbon exploration (or oil and gas exploration) is the search by petroleum geologists and geophysicists for deposits of hydrocarbons, particularly petroleum and natural gas, in the Earth using petroleum geology. Exploration methods Vis ...

and seismographic surveys, which would see Hovertravel craft deployed to barren deserts, frozen arctic conditions, and previously unexplored areas of the world. During 1968, one such expedition by a single SR.N6 successfully traversed the perilous Orinoco river during an exploratory mission deep into the Amazon rainforest. While the SR.N6 had helped to prove the value of hovercraft, it was not without its flaws; due to its dependency on aviation-derived technologies, Hovertravel's fleet became increasingly expensive to maintain over time, while its high noise output was not an attractive feature either. AP1-88

As a result of high oil prices following the 1973 oil crisis and the

1979 energy crisis The 1979 oil crisis, also known as the 1979 Oil Shock or Second Oil Crisis, was an energy crisis caused by a drop in oil production in the wake of the Iranian Revolution. Although the global oil supply only decreased by approximately four per ...

, the economics of the first generation of commercial hovercraft was badly hit, undermining operators' profitability and provoking customer requests for vehicles with greater fuel efficiency.Hewish 1983, p. 297. The BHC achieved several advances throughout the 1970s, improving its skirt technology to increase durability and require less power, while propulsion changes helped to drive down operating costs and thereby improve the hovercraft's commercial viability. While early craft had been powered by

gas turbine engine A gas turbine, also called a combustion turbine, is a type of continuous flow internal combustion engine. The main parts common to all gas turbine engines form the power-producing part (known as the gas generator or core) and are, in the directi ...

s, which were frequently similar to the

turboshaft A turboshaft engine is a form of gas turbine that is optimized to produce shaftpower rather than jet thrust. In concept, turboshaft engines are very similar to turbojets, with additional turbine expansion to extract heat energy from the exhaust ...

engines used on

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

s; advances in

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-ca ...

s enabled their application to a new generation of hovercraft.Paine and Syms 2012, p. 190.Hollebone 2012, p. 234. Hovertravel elected to procure the newly developed British Hovercraft Corporation AP1-88, a medium-size diesel-powered hovercraft. Prior to the delivery of Hovertravel's first AP1-88 hovercraft in 1983, extensive trials were performed of the vehicle to evaluate it. It was found to be considerably more economic to operate and to purchase, costing half the price of the older SR.N6 in both respects. The quieter and more economical AP1-88 was credited by Hovertravel as having revitalised the industry; the type soon entirely replaced the SR.N6 and form the bulk of the company's hovercraft fleet into the 21st century. By the turn of the century, Hovertravel was reportedly transporting almost 1 million passengers per year across its fleet, while its services were sometimes running at an interval of every 15 minutes at particularly busy points of the day. In order to cope of demand, the company sought a suitable replacement for its aging AP1-88s. While a single BHT-130 hovercraft was operated for four years, it proved to be un-economical for on the relatively short Isle of Wight route, being better suited to longer routes, such as around

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

. Thus, another type of hovercraft was sought to serve the Isle of Wight service. Hovertravel's close relationship with hovercraft manufacturer

Griffon Hoverwork Griffon Hoverwork Ltd (GHL) is a British hovercraft designer and manufacturer. It was originally founded as Griffon Hovercraft Ltd in 1976, based in Southampton. The firm set about the development of its own product range, launching its first ...

has facilitated its preferences and requirements to shape the development of new hovercraft. During 2010s, while defining what would become the ''12000TD'' hovercraft, Griffon Hoverwork drew on passenger-orientated analysis supplied by Hovertravel. Hovercraft would later acquire this vehicle, on which the passenger experience was enhanced over earlier vehicles in multiple ways; such enhancements included the incorporation of noise-minimisation measures, increased external visibility, and accessibility accommodations. Production of this new twin-diesel engine hovercraft, designated ''12000TD'' commenced in 2015 with deliveries starting during the following year. The type has been hailed as Hovertravel's quietest and most economically viable hovercraft to date. During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

two of the company's hovercraft were modified to take stretchers and a temporary landing point was opened in Southampton to allow patients to be transferred to its hospital.

Services

For several decades, Hovertravel had operated a hovercraft ferry route between the mainland of the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

(UK) from

across the

Solent The Solent ( ) is a strait between the Isle of Wight and Great Britain. It is about long and varies in width between , although the Hurst Spit which projects into the Solent narrows the sea crossing between Hurst Castle and Colwell Bay t ...

on the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight ( ) is a Counties of England, county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the List of islands of England#Largest islands, largest and List of islands of England#Mo ...

. During low tide, the hovercraft travels over sand flat at a distance of a mile to reach Ryde's hover port. By 2008, this service was the last regular route served by hovercraft anywhere in the UK. That same year, Southsea Terminal was refurbished to extend its lifetime and improve its facilities; alterations included a new wall separating the hoverport and the

esplanade An esplanade or promenade is a long, open, level area, usually next to a river or large body of water, where people may walk. The historical definition of ''esplanade'' was a large, open, level area outside fortress or city walls to provide cl ...

, as well as new lighting, toilet blocks, and a clean up of the site. During October 2017, both of the

12000TD hovercraft were temporarily taken out of service due to several technical and reliability issues, including instances of engine failure. A pair of AP1-88s were taken out of reserve to operate the service in their place. The 12000TD returned to regular service three weeks later. Hovertravel has occasionally been chartered to operate temporary hovercraft services across the

Firth of Tay The Firth of Tay (; gd, Linne Tatha) is a firth on the east coast of Scotland, into which the River Tay (Scotland's largest river in terms of flow) empties. The firth is surrounded by four council areas: Fife, Perth and Kinross, City of Dun ...

between

Carnoustie Carnoustie (; sco, Carnoustie, gd, Càrn Ùstaidh) is a town and former police burgh in the council area of Angus, Scotland. It is at the mouth of the Barry Burn on the North Sea coast. In the 2011 census, Carnoustie had a population of 1 ...

and St Andrews, typically in connection with major

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping ...

tournaments, demand being amplified by insufficient

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a re ...

accommodation available at Carnoustie. Additionally, between 16 July and 28 July 2007, the ''Solent Express'' was chartered to operate an experimental service across the Firth of Forth (marketed as ''"Forthfast"'') between

Portobello Portobello, Porto Bello, Porto Belo, Portabello, or Portabella may refer to: Places Brazil * Porto Belo Ireland * Portobello, Dublin * Cathal Brugha Barracks, Dublin formerly ''Portobello Barracks'' New Zealand * Portobello, New Zealand, on Ot ...

, and Kirkcaldy in conjunction with Scottish transport firm Stagecoach Group.

1972 accident

On 4 March 1972, Hovertravel's SR-N6 012

capsized Capsizing or keeling over occurs when a boat or ship is rolled on its side or further by wave action, instability or wind force beyond the angle of positive static stability or it is upside down in the water. The act of recovering a vessel fro ...

off Southsea, with a loss of five lives, including a single missing person who was presumed drowned. The craft had been en route from

with 26 people on board, including the crew; it had been about a quarter of a mile (400 metres) offshore when it was hit by an unusually large wave, causing the vehicle to capsize. All visible survivors were rescued from the sea, while the hovercraft itself was towed ashore at Southsea. The captain of the SR.N6 was praised for his prompt efforts to rescue the people on board. This incident was the world's first fatal accident involving a commercially operated hovercraft, and the first fatal accident involving a hovercraft in the United Kingdom.

Fleet

Presently, Hovertravel operates a pair of 12000TDs, produced by sister company

, called ''Solent Flyer'' and ''Island Flyer''. Each craft is outfitted with 78 seats, access to the passenger cabin is provided via two doorways located on the bow of the vehicle. The pilot operates the craft from a central wheelhouse. Powered by a pair of

s, the 12000TD can travel at speeds of up to while hovering around above the surface. *

References

Citations

Bibliography

* Hewish, Mark
"Quiet Craft Hovers Ahead of Competition."
''New Scientist'', 3 February 1983. Vol. 97, No. 1343. ISSN 0262-4079. pp. 297–299. * Hollebone, Ashley. "The Hovercraft Story." ''The History Press'', 2012. . * Hollebone, Ashley. "The Hovercraft: A History." ''The History Press'', 2012. . * Paine, Robin and Roger Syms
"On a Cushion of Air."
''Robin Paine'', 2012. .

External links

*

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20091122165250/http://homepage.ntlworld.com/graham.alland/mypage2.htm Account and pictures of the 1972 accident {{Isle of Wight box Shipping companies of the United Kingdom Ferry transport on the Isle of Wight Companies based in Portsmouth Transport in Hampshire 1965 establishments in England Bland Group