Hovercraft Timeline

The hovercraft concept has been around for nearly 300 years ! It's only over the past 50 years or so that working hovercrafts entered the scene. For scifi geeks (like me), it's a triumph of human ingenuity, and a perfect illustration of how imagination can evolve into working reality. So here's that hovercraft timeline:

• 1716 – Swedish renaissance inventor Emmanual Swedenborg produced the first recorded hovercraft design, lifted by human-powered oars.

• 1870'something – British engineer Sir Isaac Thornycraft constructed several ground effect model boats to reduce water drag. He filed a number of patents for his design in 1877, but no working prototype was ever built.

Over the years, a bunch of other guys worked on their own hovercraft version, but nothing concrete came of them until…

• 1952 – British inventor Christopher Cockrell produced his own vehicle design based on the "hovercraft principle", coining the catchy term in the process. His efforts granted him a knighthood, adding another "Sir" to the hovercraft list in 1969. Believe it or not, his prototype model actually incorporated a simple vacuum cleaner motor and a couple of cans to demonstrate the craft's feasibility.

Since then, the military expressed interest in Cockrell's invention, making it top secret for the first few years. Over the past decades, hovercrafts have evolved into a popular hobbyist recreational sport.

Done with the Hovercraft Timeline - back to Hovercrafterz homepage