HOVER/NG CRAFT & HYDROFOIL THE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF AIR CUSHION VEHICLES AND HYDROFOILS KALERGHI PUBLICATIONS SR.N4 - a new number for train spotters British Rail hasn't quite taken all to bring a new dimension to its IS one of four glants at present the glamour out of the train ferry operations. Capable of under construction on the world's spotter's life. Although the carrying 250 passengers and 32 flrst hovercraft product~onllne at romance and grandeur of steam cars, this 165 ton hovercraft will Cowes The frrm orders already locomotives are almost a thing of bring speedier, more comfortable placed for these craft are further I the past, there are a number of travel to everyone. tangrble evldence of operators' I interesting developments off the The world's fastest sea transport - confidence In Brltlsh hovercraft. A beaten track - even as far off as cruising at 70 knots -the SR.N4 transport revolut~onIS underway, a the open sea ! will maintain first class service day revolut~onIn whrch many enter- Including SR.N4.. and night, regardless of rough seas, prlslng ferry operators are already I This is the world's largest tide state, wind or weather. tak~ngpart. hovercraft, ordered by British Rail The SR.N4 ordered for British Rail BRITISH HOVERCRAFT- WORLD LEADERS IN THE HOVER TRANSPORT REVOLUTION 1 BRITISH HOVERCRAFT CORPORATION LIMITED IS A SUBSIDIARY OF WESTLAND AIRCRAFT .,,,,,,,,.c....,.,<. LIMITED ,.,.~,.,..,,.".. SEPTEMBER1967 VOL 6, NO 12 Editor : JUANITA KALERGHI HOVERING CRAFT AND HYDROFOIL is produced by Kalerghi Publications, 50-52 Blandford Street, London, WI. Telephone WELbeck 8678. Printed in Great Britain by Villiers Publications, London, NWS. Aiznz~alsubscrip- tion: Five Guineas UK and equivalent overseas. USA $15 Theve nre twelve issues annually. Contents of this issue are the copyright of Kalerghr HOVERING CRAFT Publications. Permission to reproduce pictures and text can be granted only under written ugreement. Extracts & HYDROFOIL or comments may be made with due ackizowledgenzent to Hovering Craft and Hydrofoil. FOUNDED OCTOBER 1961 ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE L. Temple Xosswick Ltrl, 3 Queens Court, Queensway, London, W2. Telephone BAYswater 5812 First Hovering Craft & Hydrofoil Monthly in the World Derek Weber Editor The Geographical Magazine OVERCRAFT trrals over differing types of terraln and more versatile for the explorer who seeks to get close to H under all types of climatic condlt~on~are belng hrs subject but they too have limitations and are costly to studied w~thIncreasing interest by geographers in many purchase and to operate. For travel on many types of land parts of the world They see in th~smachine a plece of surfaces motor vehicles have now reached a surprising equipment, which, rf its uses are planned wlth skill and level of eficiency and tracked vehicles exist for use on ice magin nation, will Increase the amount of work that can and snow and in certain types of swamp regions. be carried out by any expedition and whlch can provrde For large expeditions it has often been necessary to pro- mobility for key men in a way which has never before vide all of these types of transport and almost always, been possrble boats as well. The sub~ectof geography embraces many d~sclpllnesand Now cornes the hovercraft. Last year a series of highly the true geographer cannot easrly be defined The late important and successful tests took place in the snow and Professor Debenham described geography as belng "The ice of northern Canada. This year has seen s~milartrials pursult of wrsdom with respect to place" The problem has in the deserts of northern Africa. More tests have taken untll recent times been for the geographer to get to his place on tropical rivers and on rugged hillsides. In all of place and havlng reached ~t to move around there Modes these regions the hovercraft has shown that, properly of travel slnce journeys have been recorded have varied handled, it can cover long distances at high speeds over very little unt~lthe present century and the arrival of the terrain which would defeat almost any other form of aeroplane The ability to fly, however, has cut the world mechanical transport. It can stop when necessary, on land down in size in such a way as to make travel In itself a or water; it is safe and can operate under almost any matter of small difficulty. It has also given man the oppor- weather conditions; load carrying capacity can be high and tun~tyto study his world from a drstance and to see rts also flexible; and the cost, although difficult to estimate surface in a new light. accurately at this stage of development, will compare very Aircraft are fast and comparatively flexible but they are favourably with that of light aircraft. expensive to operate and difficult to stop. Helicopters are (Continued on page 6) IN THIS ISSUE E- The Hovercraft Pioneers 4 Hovercraft Research at Royal Aircraft ~stablishment, Bedford 14 People and Projects 8 Fan Air Intakes on the Naviplane N.300 29 Hamburg to Las Palmas on Foils 10 Seaspeed 30 COVER PICTURE : The Southampton terminal of British Rail Hovercruft Ltd (See article on page 30) ' By Brian Cooper HE one man who more than any other deserves cred~t The reason that Shaw was able to have such a ready T for the development of Christopher Cockerell's orlginal appreciation of the hovercraft Idea where others d~smlssed hovercraft idea is a gentle, quiet-spolten civil servant In h~s it lay In h~slong and dlst~ngu~shedcareer as an aero- late fifties. Whlle the prevlous art~clesIn th~sserles have dynamlclst Bo~nIn Liverpool In 1910, he obtalned a featured the men in prlvate Industry who d~dso much to scholarship In Pure Mathematics to Downing College, Cam- make hovercraft poss~ble,the test pilots, the operators and bridge, and graduated In Engineering in June 1932, with a the des~gners,rt was Ronald Shaw who as the Assistant first class honours In the Mechanical Sc~encesTrlpos He Dlrector of Alrcraft Research at the Mlnistry of Supply was awarded an 1851 Exhlb~t~onbursary but rellnqu~shed first realised the potentla1 of Cockerell's princ~ple and it when he became one of two junlor sclent~fic officers brought ~t to the attention of Saunders-Roe appointed to the Royal Alrcraft Establ~shmentat Farn- By the end of 1956, Cockerell had already spent two borough that year He has warm memories of the ploneer- years In trylng to get people Interested in h~srdea, w~thout ing splrrt of those days, dolng flight work and wlnd tunnel success. It was finally as the result of a personal letter to testlng, for the a~rcraftlndustry Itself was then still rela- Lord Mountbatten that the Admiralty agreed to look Into t~velynew Working under Dr G P Douglas, he was the matter further On a cold morning in November, Shaw respons~blein 1935 for evolvlng In wind tunnel tests the was sitting In h~soffice when a telephone call came through des~gnsfor the rad~atorcowlings of the first Sp~tfiresand from the Admiralty, saylng that they had an Inventor wlth Hurricanes them who seemed to be more In h~sllne Shaw agreed to In 1938 he was promoted to senior sc~entlficofficer and see h~mand was directed to the basement of an old bulld- sent to the Marine Alrcraft Experimental Establlrhment at lng in Chancery Lane This was the office of a patent Fel~xstoweto take charge of research and testlng on flying agency that had been employed by Cockerel1 Here, Shaw boats Eighteen inonths later, on the outbreak of war, the met Cockerell for the first tlme and, together with the slx Establlshment was moved up to Helensborough on the other men present, they w~tnessedthe demonstration of a Clyde, and it was here, while waltlng for their maln equip- crude hovercraft model Because of the lack of space, they ment to arrlve from Fellxstowe, that Shaw became mtel- had to s~ton tables while the model circled on the floor at ested in the poss~bll~t~esof ail lubr~cat~onto ]educe the a speed of about 10 mph at the end of a short string. An water drag on flying boat surfaces In take-off He actually office ruler was used to demonstrate its ab~l~tyto surmount bullt a slmple model w~thwhich to test his idea, nothlng obstacles more than a 12 x 18 1n box w~tha Perspex bottom w~tha Shaw was the only one of those present to express an plpe along the front edge w~thholes in it through whrch Interest In the Idea and w~lllngto talk about ~t further He alr from a compressed air cylinder could escape Th~swas rilv~tedCockerel1 to come and see him and bring h~scal- traded along In the water over the s~deof a boat What culatlons At the~rmeeting a few days later In Shaw's ofice Shaw was ~nterestedIn findlng out was how the alr jets he checked Cockerell's prellmlnary figures and found them merged to cover the bottom of the Perspex 7 he next step to be on the r~ghtlines He also discovered, which was a would have been to make some artangements to measure surprlse to both of them, that they had been up at Cam- the drag of the surface Unfortunately, perhaps, the equip- br~dgetogether, dolng engineering in the same course Jt ment for which they had been wa~tingarrlved from Fel~x- was obv~ousfrom their d~scuss~onthat a deslgn team was stowe and more Important jobs had to be done What Shaw necessary ~f the experiment was to be taken further, and d~dn'trealise at the t~mewas that he had bu~ltsomething Skiaw began by approaching Shorts ~n Belfast, because of very close to Cockelell's first hovercraft model Had he their experience of flying boats and vertlcal take-off air- been able to contlnue his lme of thmkmg, he m~ghtwell craft They were not Interested, however, and Shaw then have come up wlth the hovercraft principle As ~t was, lhls approached Saunders-Roe, a company that also had flylng- had to walt for another seventeen years.