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Well on this day in 1959 Christopher Cockerell (later to be knighted) unveiled the worlds first operational hovercraft. A matter of weeks later it crossed the English Channel!
I've been on a few and still think they're fun

Um, did you try it upside down, headache master?

The same Hovercraft I believe that is now rotting away at Flambards themepark not 10 miles from where I now sit.

The same Hovercraft I believe that is now rotting away at Flambards themepark not 10 miles from where I now sit.

Along with the aircraft that sit outside. My last visit almost made me want cry.

Matt

The same Hovercraft I believe that is now rotting away at Flambards themepark not 10 miles from where I now sit.

Quite a lot seems to rot away at Flambards does it not...

I've been on a few and still think they're fun

Shame Hoverspeed introduced the Seacat...

Quite a lot seems to rot away at Flambards does it not...

Aye. A few of the aircraft have now gone though. There was still a Wessex and a couple of others on my last visit though. Plus the wreckage of a few WWII types shot down around Cornwall.

Any Merlins lying around I could borrow?

Remember the Avro Hovercar? Later bought by the U.S. Army.  ;D

The AVRO hovercar was later bought buy the US Army...it was designed for them, they were in on it from the beginning.

All sources I've seen state that the Avrocar was originally funded by the Canadian government in 1952. The USAF became interested in 1954, followed by the US Army as a "flying jeep" in 1958. The program was terminated in December 1961 after a total of $10 million had been spent.

John Frost, the British engineer responsible for the Avro design, bitterly claimed to have been cheated of credit for the first hovercraft. Although the only prototypes might have proved the hovercraft principle it had always been intended as a proper STOL aircraft & the original concept was for a supersonic fighter.

Yes, the Canadian Gov. funded the initial research...but it was US involvement that got the protoypes built.

The AVROCAR is a weird "what if". It lack the skirt to make it a hovercraft, or the power to make it a VTOL. Skirting it would ahve stolen the hovercraft title, more power and a stabilization system would have made it fly.

AVROland.ca has a better write up at: http://www.avroland.ca/al-vz9.html

AVROland.ca has a better write up at: http://www.avroland.ca/al-vz9.html

I originally posted that link until I realised it seems contradictory. I'm not sure if this is a typo or what.

Two prototypes rolled out of the factory in May and August of 1959 just months after the Arrow project had been cancelled. The first Avrocar (58-7055) was sent to NASA Ames, Moffett Field in California it first flew there on 17 May 1961 and was used for wind-tunnel testing. The second Avrocar took first tethered flight on 29 September 1959 lasting 12 seconds. The first untethered flight occured on 12 November 1959. Formal Air Force flight evaluations occured at Avro in April 1960 and June 1961 - tests showed that the maximum speed was 35 mph and reseach at NASA showed that the Avrocar was aerodynmically unstable.

I originally posted that link until I realised it seems contradictory. I'm not sure if this is a typo or what.

My understanding, Hagar, was that the first Avro built was specifically used for aerodynamic testing and wasn't actually flown until after the second one already had been. The information given here actually supports that. I haven't looked into this for a long time, however, and it's possibly the same source info.

It's not uncommon for the second prototype to fly first...quite often the first prototype is tested to destruction.

Look at Orbitor Enterprise...it's never flown a full mission and never will.