British Hovercraft Corporation (BHC) was a British

hovercraft A hovercraft, also known as an air-cushion vehicle or ACV, is an amphibious 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, or air cushion, ...

manufacturer that designed and produced multiple types of vehicles for both commercial and civil purposes. Created with the intention of producing viable commercial

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 ...

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. D ...

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 Ka ...

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 The British Hovercraft Corporation AP1-88 is a medium-size hovercraft. In a civil configuration, the hovercraft can seat a maximum of 101 passengers, while as a troop carrier, it can transport up to 90 troops. When operated as a military logisti ...

. 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 country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

and

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

. 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

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

, developed a pioneering new form of transportation, embodied in the form of the experimental

SR.N1 The Saunders-Roe SR.N1 (Saunders-Roe Nautical 1) was the first practical hovercraft. The concept has its origins in the work of British engineer and inventor Christopher Cockerell, who succeeded in convincing figures within the services and in ...

vehicle, which became widely known as the

.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

, a large cross- Channel

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 ta ...

capable of seating up to 418 passengers along with 60 cars, and the

SR.N5 The Saunders-Roe SR.N5 (or ''Warden'' class) was a medium-sized hovercraft which first flew in 1964. It has the distinction of being the first production-built hovercraft in the world. A total of 14 SR.N5s were constructed. While Saunders-Roe ...

, 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

division of

and

(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 Lab ...

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

''Warden'' class, the stretched SR.N6 ''Winchester'' class, and the large

''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 * ...

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

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 su ...

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 pe ...

, 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 s ...

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 bot ...

. 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 re ...

. 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 direct ...

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 attribu ...

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-cal ...

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

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

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 Gurkha ...

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 to t ...

from

Britten-Norman Britten-Norman (BN) is a privately owned British aircraft manufacturer and aviation services provider. The company is the sole independent commercial aircraft producer in the United Kingdom. Britten-Norman has so far manufactured and sold almost ...

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 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 throughout 1977, ...

. 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 The SR.N2 was a hovercraft built by Westland and Saunders-Roe. It first flew in 1961. It weighed 27 tons and could carry 48 passengers. Although only one was built it is regarded as the prototype for commercial hovercraft, following on from the ...

* SR.N3 *

* SR.N6 Other: * British Hovercraft Corporation BH.7 (Wellington class) *

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