11 June: First hovercraft launched

On this date in 1959 the first experimental hovercraft, designed by Sir Christopher Cockerell and built by Saunders-Roe, was launched at Cowes, Isle of Wight.

1. The idea of the modern hovercraft is most often associated with a British mechanical engineer Sir Christopher Cockerell. He got the idea from blowing a hairdryer into the gap between a catfood tin inside a Coffee tin.
2. A hovercraft is a hybrid vessel and its operator is known as a pilot as on an aircraft rather than a captain as on a sea vessel.
3. The design was demonstrated to various government departments and originally placed on the top secret list as ministers envisaged a military use for it. However, as Cockerel himself quipped after hovercraft had been pitched to various branches of the armed forces, "the navy said it was a plane not a boat; the air force said it was a boat not a plane; and the army was 'plain' not interested.'
4. Since the military weren't interested, there was no reason to keep hovercraft on the secret list, so it was declassified. Cockerell was finally able to convince the National Research Development Corporation to fund development of a full-scale model.
5. Cockerell wasn't the first person to come up with the concept. Swedish scientist Emanuel Swedenborg wrote about the idea in 1716. The shipbuilder Sir John Isaac Thornycroft patented a design for an air cushion ship in the 1870s, but powerful enough engines weren't available until the 20th century.
6. Dagobert Müller built the world's first "air cushion" boat (Luftkissengleitboot) in 1915, but unlike modern hovercraft, it could only operate in Water, not on land, mud or ice.
7. The name Hovercraft was originally a trademark owned by Saunders-Roe (later British Hovercraft Corporation (BHC), then Westland), which is why some vehicles which are hovercraft are sometimes known by other names.
8. There is a hovercraft museum in Lee-on-the-Solent, Hampshire, England.
9. Sizes range from single seater hovercraft used for racing to the Russian Zubr class LCAC at 57.6 meters (188 feet) length and a maximum displacement of 535 tons. This hovercraft can transport three battle tanks, 140 fully equipped troops, or up to 130 tons of cargo.
10. The World Hovercraft Speed Record is 137.4 km/h (85.38 mph or 74.19 knots). This was achieved by Bob Windt at World Hovercraft Championships, Rio Douro River, Peso de Regua, Portugal on September 18, 1995. On land, the highest speed achieved is 56.25 mph (90.53 km/h or 48.88 knots), by John Alford at Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah, USA on 21 September 1998.