The N500 Naviplane was a French

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, ...

built by SEDAM (''Société d'Etude et de Développement des Aéroglisseurs Marins'') in

Pauillac Pauillac (; oc, Paulhac) is a municipality in the Gironde department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in southwestern France. The city is mid-way between Bordeaux and the Pointe de Grave, along the Gironde, the largest estuary in western Europe. Populati ...

Gironde Gironde ( US usually, , ; oc, Gironda, ) is the largest department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of Southwestern France. Named after the Gironde estuary, a major waterway, its prefecture is Bordeaux. In 2019, it had a population of 1,6 ...

for the cross channel route. Intended to have a large passenger and crew capacity, it was for a while the largest hovercraft. Only two were built. The first was destroyed by a fire before entering service, the second proved unreliable and was broken up in 1985 at the end of its service.

History

* N500-01 - ''Côte d'Argent'' registered LV 365.832 port of Le Verdon, Gironde estuary. :First flight on 19 April 1977 on the

, demonstrating a speed of 40-45 knots (74–83 km/h). She was destroyed by a fire at her construction site on 3 May 1977. * N500-02 - ''Ingénieur Jean Bertin'' registered BL 341.931 port of Boulogne Sur Mer. :Built for

Seaspeed Seaspeed was a British hovercraft operator which ran services in the Solent and English Channel between 1965 and 1981, when it merged with a rival to form Hoverspeed. Seaspeed was a jointly owned subsidiary of railway companies British Rail ...

SNCF The Société nationale des chemins de fer français (; abbreviated as SNCF ; French for "National society of French railroads") is France's national state-owned railway company. Founded in 1938, it operates the country's national rail traffic ...

in 1977. Transferred to

Hoverspeed Hoverspeed was a ferry company that operated on the English Channel from 1981 until 2005. It was formed in 1981 by the merger of Seaspeed and Hoverlloyd. Its last owners were Sea Containers; the company ran a small fleet of two high-speed Sea ...

in 1983 after a number of modifications but was returned to SNCF later that year after Hoverspeed decided she was not suitable for their services. Broken up in 1985 at the Boulogne Hoverport. The N500 was one of the world's largest hovercraft; it could transport 400 passengers, 55 cars and 5 buses. It was also one of the fastest and reached a speed record for a travel from Boulogne to Dover at an average speed of 74 knots (137 km/h). The mass of the N500 was 260 tons, it was 50 m long and 23 m wide.

Crew

1 pilot. 1 co-pilot. Seated side by side in the cockpit. 1 radar-navigator seated at the rear part of the cockpit. 6 to 8 stewardess. 6 stower-men for the cars.

Flight control

Flight yokes controlled the horizontal tail wing (elevator), propeller pitch and the thrust power of the 3 propulsion gas turbines Rudder pedals controlled the two aerial rudders. Two thrust levers controlled power of the two lifting gas turbines. Obturation flaps system between the air cushion chamber and the skirts provided additional longitudinal and lateral control. Later modifications (1983) included: * A third rudder on the middle engine pylon. * Four air vent system providing additional lateral control at low speed.

History

Crew

Flight control

Specifications (N500)

See also

References

External links