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Sir Christopher Sydney Cockerell
in Alexandra Palace.
In his life, the
Information about Sir Christopher Cockerell
Hovercraft-Museum.org. Accessed 5 January be 2023. {{DEFAULTSORT:Cockerell, Christopher 1910 births 1999 deaths English inventors Hovercraft People from Cambridge People educated at Gresham's School Alumni of Peterhouse, Cambridge Fellows of the Royal Society Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Knights Bachelor Royal Medal winners Howard N. Potts Medal recipients 20th-century British engineers
Sir Christopher Sydney Cockerell CBE
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations,
and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
RDI FRS (4 June 1910 – 1 June 1999) was an English engineer, best known as the inventor of the hovercraft.
Early life and education
Cockerell was born inCambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...
, where his father, Sir Sydney Cockerell, was curator of the Fitzwilliam Museum, having previously been the secretary of William Morris
William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was a British textile designer, poet, artist, novelist, architectural conservationist, printer, translator and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement. He ...
. His mother was the illustrator and designer Florence Kingsford Cockerell. Christopher attended the preparatory school of St Faith's. Christopher was educated at Gresham's School, Holt, Norfolk. He matriculated at Peterhouse, Cambridge to read mechanical engineering. He later returned to Cambridge to study radio and electronics.
Early career
He began his career working for W. H. Allen & Sons ofBedford
Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population of the Bedford built-up area (including Biddenham and Kempston) was 106,940, making it the second-largest settlement in Bedfordshire, behind Luton, whilst ...
. After returning to the University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...
in 1934 to study radio and electronics, he went to work at the Radio Research Company. In 1935, he went to work at the Marconi Company
The Marconi Company was a British telecommunications and engineering company that did business under that name from 1963 to 1987. Its roots were in the Wireless Telegraph & Signal Company founded by Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi in 189 ...
, and soon afterwards he married Margaret Elinor Belsham (4 September 1913 – September 1996). They lived at the now Grade II listed Gay Bowers Cottage in Danbury, Essex
Danbury is a village in the City of Chelmsford district, in the county of Essex, England. It is located northeast of Charing Cross, London and has a population of 6,500. It is situated on a hill above sea level.
The city of Danbury, Connectic ...
from 1940 to 1951.
During his time in Chelmsford
Chelmsford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in the City of Chelmsford district in the county of Essex, England. It is the county town of Essex and one of three cities in the county, along with Southend-on-Sea and Colchester. It ...
, he led a research team in the Marconi hut at Writtle and worked on many systems, including radar
Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, we ...
.
After the war he contributed to the development of several sophisticated pieces of equipment, including radio location
Radiolocation, also known as radiolocating or radiopositioning, is the process of finding the location of something through the use of radio waves. It generally refers to passive uses, particularly radar—as well as detecting buried cables, w ...
technology, and the first equipment used by the BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...The Hovercraft
After Cockerell left the Marconi Company, he bought Ripplecraft Ltd., a small Norfolk boat and caravan hire company, with a legacy left by his father-in-law. The firm made little money, and Cockerell began to think how the craft could be made to go faster. He was led to earlier work by the Thornycroft company, in which a small vessel had been partially raised out of the water by a small engine. Cockerell's greatest invention, the hovercraft, grew out of this work. It occurred to him that if the entire craft were lifted from the water, the craft would effectively have no drag. This, he conjectured, would give the craft the ability to attain a much higher maximum speed than could be achieved by the boats of the time. Cockerell's theory was that instead of just pumping air under the craft, as Thornycroft had, if the air were to be instead channelled to form a narrow jet around the perimeter of the craft, the moving air would form a momentum curtain, a wall of moving air that would limit the amount of air that would leak out. This meant that the same cushion of high pressure air could be maintained by a much smaller engine; and for the first time, a craft could be lifted completely out of the water. Cockrell tested his designs in the broadland village of Somerleyton, Suffolk. He tested his theories using a vacuum cleaner and two tin cans. Hishypothesis
A hypothesis (plural hypotheses) is a proposed explanation for a phenomenon. For a hypothesis to be a scientific hypothesis, the scientific method requires that one can test it. Scientists generally base scientific hypotheses on previous obse ...
was found to have potential, but the idea took some years to develop, and he was forced to sell personal possessions to finance his research. By 1955, he had built a working model from balsa
''Ochroma pyramidale'', commonly known as the balsa tree, is a large, fast-growing tree native to the Americas. It is the sole member of the genus ''Ochroma''. The tree is famous for its wide usage in woodworking, with the name ''balsa'' being ...
wood and had filed his first patent for the hovercraft, No. . Cockerell had found it impossible to interest the private sector in developing his idea, as both the aircraft and the shipbuilding industries saw it as lying outside their core business.
He therefore approached the British Government with a view to interesting them in possible defence applications. The leaders of the defence groups were not interested in providing funding and put the idea of the hovercraft on the government's secret list. Being on the secret list stopped Cockerell from making his design public.
It remained classified until 1958, upon news of similar developments on the continent, it was declassified, and Cockerell was introduced to the NRDC (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 ...
). In the autumn of 1958, the NRDC placed an order with Saunders-Roe for the first full-scale hovercraft. This prototype craft was designated the SR.N1 (Saunders-Roe – Nautical One) and was manufactured under licence from the NRDC. On 11 June 1959, the SR.N1 was first shown to the public, which was capable of carrying four men at a speed of 28 miles per hour. Weeks later, it was shipped over to France. It successfully crossed 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 ...
between Calais and Dover on 25 July 1959, 50 years to the day after the historic crossing by Bleriot.
In January 1959, the NRDC formed a subsidiary called Hovercraft Development Ltd. Cockerell was the Technical Director and the company controlled the patents which it used to license several private sector firms to manufacture craft under the registered trademark of Hovercraft.
Cockerell received an Honorary Doctorate
An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hon ...
from Heriot-Watt University in 1971.
Later life
In later life, Cockerell developed many other improvements to the hovercraft, and invented various other applications for the air cushion principle, such as the hovertrain. He attended many hovercraft related events, such as the unveiling of many hoverports across the United Kingdom. After a short illness, Christopher Cockerell died at Hythe, Hampshire on 1 June 1999. Cockerell was awarded £5,000 by the British Government of the 1960s, the only practical official recognition of the value of his work, though he was given a knighthood.Other work
In later life, Cockerell developed the Cockerell Raft, a wave power hydraulic device which may have implications in the future for electricity generation.Awards
*1965 Awarded the Howard N. Potts Medal *1966 Made aCBE
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations,
and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
*1967 Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society
Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathemat ...
*1968 Awarded Elmer A. Sperry Award The Elmer A. Sperry Award, named after the inventor and entrepreneur, is an American transportation engineering prize.
It has been given since 1955 for "a distinguished engineering contribution which, through application, proved in actual service, ...
for his development of the Hovercraft
*1969 Knighted for his services to engineering
Commemoration
In his life, 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 ...
hovercraft ''GH2008 Sir Christopher'' was named after its inventor. It was operated by Hoverlloyd
Hoverlloyd operated a cross-Channel hovercraft service between Ramsgate, England and Calais, France.
Originally registered as ''Cross-Channel Hover Services Ltd'' in 1965, the company was renamed Hoverlloyd the following year. It was initially ...
(later 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 ...
) across the channel from 1972 to 1991.
A plaque in Cockerell Rise, 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 ...
, Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight ( ) is a Counties of England, county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the List of islands of England#Largest islands, largest and List of islands of England#Mo ...
, marks the location of White Cottage, where Cockerell lived and worked. The Cottage has been demolished, but the garage still stands. The plaque was erected by Friends of East Cowes with financial support from the Big Lottery Fund
The National Lottery Community Fund, legally named the Big Lottery Fund, is a non-departmental public body responsible for distributing funds raised by the National Lottery for "good causes". Since 2004 it has awarded over £9 billion to ...
.
Cockerell's workshop, including his left-handed lathe, was given to the Lowestoft Maritime Museum on his death in 1999 where it was reassembled and is now on show to the public.
References
External links
Information about Sir Christopher Cockerell
Hovercraft-Museum.org. Accessed 5 January be 2023. {{DEFAULTSORT:Cockerell, Christopher 1910 births 1999 deaths English inventors Hovercraft People from Cambridge People educated at Gresham's School Alumni of Peterhouse, Cambridge Fellows of the Royal Society Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Knights Bachelor Royal Medal winners Howard N. Potts Medal recipients 20th-century British engineers