The Hovercraft Museum, in Lee-on-the-Solent,

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

, England is a museum run by a

registered charity A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being (e.g. educational, Religion, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good). The legal definitio ...

dedicated to

hovercraft A hovercraft (: 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. Hovercraft use blowers to produce a large volume of air below the ...

. The museum has a collection of over 60 hovercraft of various designs. Situated at Solent Airport Daedalus by the large slipway from where many hovercraft have been tested, the museum collection includes SR.N5 and SR.N6 hovercraft. The collection also contains the last remaining

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 ...

craft, the world's largest civil hovercraft, which has been laid up in Lee-on-the-Solent since cross-Channel services ceased on 1 October 2000. The museum houses the world's largest library of documents, publications, film, video, photographs and drawings on hovercraft, all of which is available for research by prior arrangement. A number of hovercraft manufacturers have deposited their complete archives with the museum for safekeeping, thus swelling this important repository of information. The museum also contains a large collection of original manufacturers' hovercraft models including the world's first working hovercraft model built by Christopher Cockerell. The museum reopened in January 2016 after being closed for essential structural building work over nearly two years. Shortly afterwards the remaining

craft came under threat of scrapping when the site owners, the

Homes and Communities Agency Homes England is the non-departmental public body that funds new affordable housing in England. It was founded on 1 January 2018 to replace the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA). HCA in turn was established by the Housing and Regeneration Act ...

, proposed the redevelopment of the land. The museum trust started a petition calling for one of the craft to be preserved. In October 2023 the Hovercraft Museum achieved Arts Council England Accreditation, joining more than 1700 museums also taking part in the scheme.

Notes and references

External links

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Pictures of Hovershow, 2004Pictures of Hovershow. 2005Pictures of Hovershow. 2006The Hovercraft Museum and the Daedlus Slipway Intrigue 4K
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Museum A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or Preservation (library and archive), preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private colle ...

Museums in Hampshire Maritime museums in England Gosport 1988 establishments in England