Flying hovercraft!

Mental or visionary?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/8543202.stm

I shouldn't imagine landing on actual land would be very safe.

If one of those wings slightly touched the water surface, you'd have two dead people.

If one of those wings slightly touched the water surface, you'd have two dead people.

Try putting the word "Ekranoplan" into your browser,You might be more than slightly surprised at what you see.

Try putting the word "Ekranoplan" into your browser,You might be more than slightly surprised at what you see.

Been there, thanks anyway.

Pretty badly worded article as all hovercraft are inherently airborne when travelling.

Pretty badly worded article as all hovercraft are inherently airborne when travelling.

Indeed. Before the big SRN4 made crossings across the Channel, IIRC years ago, the smaller SRN6 hovercraft crossing from Southampton [next door to the floating bridge] to Cowes was called a flight. It was no idle boast either, as on one crossing the tide was most definitely out, and there was a low water post and breaker from the beach to the post on the Woolston side. Because this jutted out into the mouth of the Itchen/Southampton Water approaches, at low tide it was completely exposed, with a good 3 feet of the breaker out of the ground/surface water. We passed over it doing a fair whack, with nerry a ripple from the skirt. I remember all the passengers being highly impressed by this, as was I as a kid, and I've allways had a soft spot for hovercraft ever since.

Here you go [note no Itchen Bridge]: Seaspeed SRN6 comes into Southampton.

Worked in the hovercraft industry for nearly 20 years after leaving school.

Should have been exploited a lot more. The '73 fuel crisis didn't help as a lot of craft were gas-turbine powered and quite fuel-hungry.

Later models were developed with diesel engines (Southsea - Ryde) which were more economical but no company was willing to put up the money to fund further development to build larger craft.