British Hovercraft Corporation (BHC) was a British
hovercraft
A hovercraft, also known as an air-cushion vehicle or ACV, is an amphibious Craft (vehicle), craft capable of travelling over land, water, mud, ice, and other surfaces.
Hovercraft use blowers to produce a large volume of air below the hull ...
manufacturer that designed and produced multiple types of vehicles for both commercial and civil purposes.
Created with the intention of producing viable commercial
hovercraft
A hovercraft, also known as an air-cushion vehicle or ACV, is an amphibious Craft (vehicle), craft capable of travelling over land, water, mud, ice, and other surfaces.
Hovercraft use blowers to produce a large volume of air below the hull ...
in March 1966, BHC was the result of an corporate merger between the
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 co ...
division of
Westland Aircraft
Westland Aircraft was a British aircraft manufacturer located in Yeovil, Somerset. Formed as a separate company by separation from Petters Limited just before the start of the Second World War, Westland had been building aircraft since 1915. Du ...
and
Vickers Supermarine
Vickers was a British engineering company that existed from 1828 until 1999. It was formed in Sheffield as a steel foundry by Edward Vickers and his father-in-law, and soon became famous for casting church bells. The company went public in 18 ...
's hovercraft interests. None of the Vickers hovercraft designs reached quantity production, manufacturing efforts being centered upon Saunders-Roe's existing portfolio. Perhaps the most high-profile vehicle produced by BHC was the large
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 ...
''Mountbatten'' class hovercraft; it was the largest civil-orientated hovercraft to ever be put into service; several were completed and used in revenue services across the
English Channel
The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kana ...
for multiple decades.
Later on, the BHC developed their own newer hovercraft designs, such as the military-oriented
BH.7 ''Wellington'' class and the medium-size diesel-powered
British Hovercraft Corporation AP1-88. These vehicles made advances in the efficiency and viability of hovercraft; the AP1-88 was produced in quantity not only by BHC but also
under licence in both
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
and
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
. In 1970, Westland Aircraft acquired the shares from the other firm's owners, making the BHC a wholly owned subsidiary of Westland. During the 1980s, the firm's focus on hovercraft declined as it became increasingly involved in the manufacture of
composites for other company's products. In 1984, the company was renamed ''Westland Aerospace''.
History
![Hovercraft in Dover](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2b/Hovercraft_in_Dover.jpg)
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 co ...
, developed a pioneering new form of transportation, embodied in the form of the experimental
SR.N1 vehicle, which became widely known as the
hovercraft
A hovercraft, also known as an air-cushion vehicle or ACV, is an amphibious Craft (vehicle), craft capable of travelling over land, water, mud, ice, and other surfaces.
Hovercraft use blowers to produce a large volume of air below the hull ...
.
[Paine and Syms 2012, p. 82.] British manufacturer Saunders-Roe proceeded with work on various hovercraft designs, successfully developing multiple commercially viable vehicles. 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
Channel, channels, channeling, etc., may refer to:
Geography
* Channel (geography), in physical geography, a landform consisting of the outline (banks) of the path of a narrow body of water.
Australia
* Channel Country, region of outback Austral ...
ferry
A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water taxi ...
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.]
British Hovercraft Corporation (BHC) emerged as a corporate entity in March 1966, at which point the
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 co ...
division of
Westland Aircraft
Westland Aircraft was a British aircraft manufacturer located in Yeovil, Somerset. Formed as a separate company by separation from Petters Limited just before the start of the Second World War, Westland had been building aircraft since 1915. Du ...
and
Vickers Supermarine
Vickers was a British engineering company that existed from 1828 until 1999. It was formed in Sheffield as a steel foundry by Edward Vickers and his father-in-law, and soon became famous for casting church bells. The company went public in 18 ...
(the two largest hovercraft manufacturers in the world) were merged.
Following the merger, Westland Aircraft held 65% of the shares in BHC, while Vickers had a 25% stake in the venture and the British state-owned
National Research Development Corporation The National Research Development Corporation (NRDC) was a non-departmental government body established by the British Government to transfer technology from the public sector to the private sector.
History
The NRDC was established by Attlee's La ...
also held 10% of the shares. Despite the inclusion of Vickers' hovercraft venture, none of its designs were ever taken through to the manufacturing stage; instead, production activity was centred on the existing designs produced by Saunders-Roe, including the
SR.N5 ''Warden'' class, the stretched
SR.N6
The Saunders-Roe (later British Hovercraft Corporation) SR.N6 hovercraft (also known as the ''Winchester'' class) was essentially a larger version of the earlier SR.N5 series. It incorporated several features that resulted in the type becoming ...
''Winchester'' class, and the large
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 ...
''Mountbatten'' class hovercraft.
Substantial support for the hovercraft industry, and BHC specifically, was sourced directly from the British Government. By 1969, contributions from the British state averaged around £3 million per year; of this, roughly one-third was attributed to research and development contracts, while the remaining two-thirds was divided between financing the
Joint Services Military Trials Unit based at
Lee-on-Solent
Lee-on-the-Solent, often referred to as Lee-on-Solent, is a seaside district of the Borough of Gosport in Hampshire, England, about five miles (8 km) west of Portsmouth. The area is located on the coast of the Solent. It is primarily a res ...
and the
National Physical Laboratory's
Hythe
Hythe, from Anglo-Saxon ''hȳð'', may refer to a landing-place, port or haven, either as an element in a toponym, such as Rotherhithe in London, or to:
Places Australia
* Hythe, Tasmania
Canada
*Hythe, Alberta, a village in Canada
England
* T ...
division.
In addition to financing, the British Government was also keen to implement a regulatory framework for the hovercraft sector, including the implementation of safety certification, leading to the Hovercraft Act of 1968.
However, not all commitments made by the British government would be ultimately be fulfilled. As early as 1964, Saunders-Roe had been engaged in studies of very large hovercraft, including a prospective 2,000 ton freighter-orientated vehicle, in addition to its ongoing interest in the development of smaller-scale hovercraft.
[Paine and Syms 2012, p. 147.] Work on giant ocean-going hovercraft continued under the BHC, but ultimately did not lead to any vehicle larger than the SR.N4 being produced. During 1968, the British government decided to withdraw its backing for the company's feasibility study on large hovercraft, resulting in the BHC's development programme being curtailed.
![AP1-88](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/AP1-88.jpg)
As a result of high oil prices following the
1973 oil crisis
The 1973 oil crisis or first oil crisis began in October 1973 when the members of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC), led by Saudi Arabia, proclaimed an oil embargo. The embargo was targeted at nations that had supp ...
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 profitability of the first generation of commercial hovercraft was badly hit, undermining operators' profitability and provoking requests from customers for more fuel efficient vehicles.
[Hewish 1983, p. 297.] Furthermore, hovercraft were not the only high-speed water vehicles making advances at this time; competing technologies included the
hydrofoil
A hydrofoil is a lifting surface, or foil, that operates in water. They are similar in appearance and purpose to aerofoils used by aeroplanes. Boats that use hydrofoil technology are also simply termed hydrofoils. As a hydrofoil craft gains sp ...
and the
pump-jet
A pump-jet, hydrojet, or water jet is a marine system that produces a jet of water for propulsion. The mechanical arrangement may be a ducted propeller (axial-flow pump), a centrifugal pump, or a mixed flow pump which is a combination of both ...
.
As early as 1969, rival hovercraft manufacturers had encountered commercial difficulties and been
liquidated
Liquidation is the process in accounting by which a company is brought to an end in Canada, United Kingdom, United States, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, and many other countries. The assets and property of the company are redistrib ...
.
Throughout the 1970s, the BHC made several advances in its skirt technology, such as requiring less power to keep inflated; the company also produced extensions of its existing hovercraft range, which had the benefit of increasing payload capacity. It was also recognised that there were other means to drive down costs and thereby improve the hovercraft's commercial viability.
These early vehicles 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 typically similar, or identical, 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; however, by the 1970s, recent 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-call ...
s had made the prospects for applying an entirely different form of powerplant to a new generation of hovercraft increasingly attractive.
[Paine and Syms 2012, p. 190.][Hollebone 2012, p. 234.]
The BHC successfully developed its own original hovercraft designs during its existence. The
BH.7 ''Wellington'' class is a military-oriented model, while the
British Hovercraft Corporation AP1-88 is a medium-size diesel-powered hovercraft. The AP1-88 was notably cheaper to operate and to purchase, being half the price of the older SR.N6 in both respects. The type was produced in quantity not only by the BHC, but was also
constructed under licence by companies in both
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
and
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
.
While plans to procure the BH.7 for the
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
were terminated during 1968, government support continued to be forthcoming; the
Ministry of Technology
The Ministry of Technology was a department of the government of the United Kingdom, sometimes abbreviated as "MinTech". The Ministry of Technology was established by the incoming government of Harold Wilson in October 1964 as part of Wilson's am ...
ordered a single BH.7, helping to facilitate the launch of a Navy-orientated version.
In 1970, Westland Aircraft acquired the shares of the other parties, resulting in the BHC becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of Westland. In 1971, Westland successfully acquired the competing British rival
Cushioncraft
Cushioncraft Ltd was a British engineering company, formed in 1960 as a division of Britten-Norman Ltd (manufacturer of aircraft) to develop/build hovercraft. Originally based at Bembridge Airport on the Isle of Wight, Cushioncraft later moved t ...
from
Britten-Norman.
![Cowes 03](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15/Cowes_03.jpg)
During 1977, the BHC created the largest
Union Flag
The Union Jack, or Union Flag, is the ''de facto'' national flag of the United Kingdom. Although no law has been passed making the Union Flag the official national flag of the United Kingdom, it has effectively become such through precedent. ...
in the world. It was painted on the doors of their hangar on the seafront at
East Cowes
East Cowes is a town and civil parish in the north of the Isle of Wight, on the east bank of the River Medina, next to its west bank neighbour Cowes.
The two towns are connected by the Cowes Floating Bridge, a chain ferry operated by the Isle ...
to celebrate the
Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II
The Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II marked the Silver jubilee, 25th anniversary of the accession of Queen Elizabeth II on 6 February 1952. It was celebrated with large-scale parties and parades throughout the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth o ...
.
In 1984, the company was renamed ''Westland Aerospace''; around this time, design work on new hovercraft effectively ceased. Instead, the company became increasingly involved with the manufacture of
composites, which were widely used throughout the aerospace industry.
Craft
Inherited designs from the Saunders Roe division of Westland Aircraft:
*
SR.N2
*
SR.N3
The British Hovercraft Corporation SR.N3 was a 37.5 ton hovercraft originally designed by Saunders-Roe.
Launched in 1963, it was primarily aimed at military deployment. It was a military version of the SR.N2
Propulsion and lift was provided ...
*
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 ...
*
SR.N5
*
SR.N6
The Saunders-Roe (later British Hovercraft Corporation) SR.N6 hovercraft (also known as the ''Winchester'' class) was essentially a larger version of the earlier SR.N5 series. It incorporated several features that resulted in the type becoming ...
Other:
*
British Hovercraft Corporation BH.7
The British Hovercraft Corporation BH.7 (also known as the ''Wellington'' class) is a medium size hovercraft. It was the first quantity-production hovercraft to be specifically developed for military applications.
The prototype performed its fi ...
(Wellington class)
*
British Hovercraft Corporation AP1-88
*
Patrol Air Cushion Vehicle
The Patrol Air Cushion Vehicle (PACV), also known as the Air Cushion Vehicle (ACV) in Army and Coast Guard service, was a United States Navy and Army hovercraft used as a patrol boat in marshy and riverine areas during the Vietnam War between ...
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
{{Authority control
Hovercraft manufacturers
Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1966
Vehicle manufacturing companies disestablished in 1984
Westland Helicopters
1966 establishments in England
1984 disestablishments in England
British companies disestablished in 1984
British companies established in 1966