I remember BBC news reporting on the final SRN4 crossing, opening with: "they are awesome, they're still the fastest way to get to France and they're still profitable, but the cross Channel Hovercraft are for the chop. In this business, competing against the Channel Tunnel, packing in the cars is the key to maximum profits. The hovercraft just doesn't take enough. But those who fly it say the hovercraft has a cult following," The Princess Anne hovercraft holds the unofficial speed record for the quickest channel crossing, 22 minutes between Dover and Calais (it's unofficial because the Channel has a speed limit of 60 Knots and to set the unofficial record, they travelled far quicker than that)
I went on a hovercraft the day before they closed it. It was very enjoyable, bit choppy on the journey back but it was tinged with sadness knowing that it was going to be my first and last time I was going to travel by hovercraft.
@@marioavossa Hovercraft were phased out before my time and before I had ever been to the UK. I learnt about them a few years ago and from someone who had never seen or heard about them before in real life, they seem like pure science fiction! A giant semi-flying craft which could travel faster than cars on the highway and many small planes, with carrying capacity over a hundred tons. Incredible machines and a shame that they didn't find a way to make them more economically viable - it does appear that they still had room to scale up and become even more efficient! Hopefully they come back some day.
...the English Channel has a speed limit?! I have no idea why this fact surprises me, the idea of waterways having speed limits obviously makes some sense (Although with open water shared between nations like that, is it some French/British treaty that governs it?). I just find the idea of speed limits on the open ocean really amusing for some reason. Like the idea of posted signs on buoys and cops in cutters trying to pull you over for breaking the speed limit...
@@Tinil0 the reason is for the sheer number of vessels using that 22 Mile stretch of water that separates Britain from France. When Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May tried to set a record for the fastest Channel Crossing by an amphibious car, they had to be constantly on the alert for ships on their course. Indeed, in one of their false starts, they caused a Seacat to dodge them, which led to them being told off by the police, and even when they were properly underway, the Coast Guard swooped in low to try and identify them and asked them on the radio about what their intentions were
@@Tinil0 English Channel / La Manche is not open ocean! The busiest sea lane in the world is much more like a motorway with multiple crossing roads without roundabouts or traffic lights. Compare a road system with vast lorries that have huge turning circles and stopping zones plus bicycles and disability scooters all running criss-cross and diagonally across the motorway. Lane discipline and speed restrictions vital
There is still an active Hovercraft service running between Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight in the UK. The service used the smaller SRN6 hovercraft up until 2016, where they changed to a newer design. It’s cool to see them in action, and it is still a really quick way to get across to the island (takes approx. 10 mins compared to a 45 minute journey by ferry).
They are great. On a clear day you can see them set off from Portsmouth front and you can see them go over and land on the IOW (where they were originally made). Amazingly fast but as many have said -they are very noisy.
Got buzzed by it on a sailing trip at dusk, low-displacement vessels have spinning amber beacons and seeing that coming out of the twilight was an experience. Also air wash is really weird to deal with.
The key reason they're still used for this crossing is that it actually makes uses of the advantages of a hovercraft. Ryde sands stretch out almost a mile meaning your choice is either maintaining a pier or using something like a hovercraft!
My first ride was accidental. We had booked for a catamaran crossing from Dover to Dunkirque; but there was a maintenance issue. We were offered the hovercraft to Calais as an alternative and boarded directly. In next to no time we were in France. It was an exhilarating experience and I greatly regret their passing.
Did you enjoy it? I heard that one of the major reasons for their passing was because they were noisy and not that comfortable for passengers. They were definitely not easy to control during strong winds and each seat has a vomit bag for that same reason.
I thought the only transport the History Cnannel covered was alien spacecraft? It seems that aliens, nazis and zombies are 90% of their content these days.
I used to work on the Hovercraft between Dover and Calais! Loved those crafts and was sad when they were decommissioned! Fun facts about the Crafts: - USA tourists used to ask some crazy questions and often asked where the wheels were and how they ran along the bottom of the ocean - In rough weather the rubber skirt often smacked the front windows leaving us rather worried! - In super rough weather we would speed along the beaches as far as we could on the French side for a few miles before we entered the water - The fastest crossing we ever did was 27 mins, although 22 mins was the top record I believe - The Roles Royce engines often went tech and the rubber skirt needed repair weekly! - We once lost 2 engines and had to crawl back but still made it - People think it was the Channel Tunnel that "sunk" the service, but the cost of the rubber skirt and engines were astronomical to repair and specialised staff/engineers needed (not to mention the massive loses to organised staff theft) - We used to land on the Goodwin Sands for organised cricket games. - All crew were cross trained to air cabin crew standard and had to learn about the craft including the engines and be onboard fire fighters. We trained on board very regularly and you would have been in very good hands had an accident occurred (unlike the ferries) - The crafts are rafted into sections so if there was an explosion it would be very hard to sink! EDIT : An additional fact added 1 year after posting this as someone raised a very good point that he couldn't see anything out the window because of spray..... - Your view depended upon your seat (as well as the crossing conditions). If you booked a front seat they were considered for the "runners". People that did day trips for the duties (duty frees) - (sometimes back to back round trips all day) always booked the front. It was the cheapest seat and the roughest ride and you never got to see out the windows for all the spray hitting the front of the craft. The further back you booked the more expensive the seat, and also the smoother the ride, and of course window view without spray. This was the middle section of the craft and serviced by another section of crew. Then there was a curtained off VIP section right at the back of the craft also, which was serviced by another VIP crew member. It was the smoothest ride on the craft and also the best view. All seasonal staff were stationed at the front, and the more you had a mum or dad working within the company the better your station at the back of the craft ;) This arrangement of class passengers and staff was mirrored both sides of the craft.
Great facts, thanks! My family took an SR4 from Dover to Calais in the summer of 1969. Absolutely amazing! I had looked forward to that part of our trip since dad told me his plan to cross the channel like this. It did not disappoint. We had 6-8 ft. waves that day and it seemed to handle them fine. But I was most amazed at just how enormous the craft was. How would something this huge and full of cars even get off the ground? 4 Massive Rolls Royce engines was the answer. We crossed in right about 30 min.
@@HQBergeron It did handle waves well and if you were seated in the middle or back of the craft which was for the first & middle class passengers you normally had a good crossing! The front servery was were I served and where the "runners" were located and it was where all the action was at :D The front of the craft is much more choppy and took the brunt of the action! Good to hear your happy memories! Everyone that I speak to that worked onboard or staff side, and those that experienced crossings with them have a certain happy nostalgia :) It was a sad day when they were decommissioned!
@@vjpearce You might think that....but I was onboard when the change happened! The runners that were the majority of Hoverspeeds business went from being able to buy 1 bottle of spirits and 200 cigs to being able to purchase unlimited amounts! We literally could not stock enough when they turned up with over £1000 in cash each for their orders! They would run to the servery to try to bribe us before we even left the Pad to mke us serve them first as they all knew we would run out of stock after maybe 1-4 orders (we only had so much space each crossing for stock and also I think we had a limit to adhere to with each servery?). There were many orders that we could not do, and many runners kicked off annoyed as they had wasted a round trip to France without purchasing duties onboard (although they still would have manged to get some stock shoreside in Calais).
Mustard - the very definition of quality above quantity. I can't think of another channel I get this excited for whenever I get a notification from it. Keep doing what you're doing. Thank you.
@@JustJohn505 ok and? They make good content and how does it lose meaning? If a ton of people call breaking bad a really good show does that make it bad?
I remember taking these as a kid, unforgettable experience of crossing the channel. Not that you'd see much through the windows (there often was a lot of water spray and condensation), but it was such a cool machine, the noise it makes as it comes to you on the apron, the speed, entering on the opened ramp, the cushioning feeling... great engineering... Concorde of the sea.
I've been living in western Alaska for the last several years. There are no highways out here so when the rivers freeze in the winter the only way to get things here is by air cargo. I think hovercraft could be useful out here. People drive their trucks on the frozen rivers so they should be able use a hover craft.
You're absolutely right Charles. In fact, you would be able to navigate many more frozen rivers using a hovercraft than using a truck. A hovercraft spreads its weight over the entire undersurface of the vehicle, whereas a truck pushes down through the relatively small area of the tyre contact patches. So the *average* ground pressure of a hovercraft is much less than a truck, so it would be able to travel over much softer ground (or even water).
woah, that WOULD be useful I bet! I wonder how the fuel consumption would compare vs an air cargo plane? Although planes have the advantage of being able to take a direct route over mountains. As a replacement for trucks over ice though, I bet hovercraft would be a lot safer! Even if the ice breaks you'd still stay afloat.
An hovercraft is much safer than a truck or a bus running on a frozen river whose lack of thickness may be dangerous for goods and persons. Their high fuel consumption wouldn't be a problem regarding all the favours they can give, chiefly in the US where energy is cheaper.
I remember travelling on an SRN4. Watching it arrive was a truly impressive sight as it approached over the water before coming to rest on the apron. Though it was HUGE it majestically pirouetted on the apron before unloading. Traveling on it is something I will never forget. It was noisy and *everything* vibrated yet there was a definite impression of speed - more like being in an aeroplane than a boat. While under way conversations were mostly conducted by yelling. Despite the downsides of travelling on a hovercraft it was a most marvellous adventure. Having experienced it I can understand why it was such a popular way to cross the Channel. It's right up there with flying on a Zeppelin or Concorde.
I was quite young when I crossed the channel on an SRN4, but the two things I remember vividly are the noise and the vibration. It felt like you were riding in the belly of a roaring mechanical beast that was moments away from shaking itself to pieces.
@@bad_haired_sam I also vividly remember the smell. The vehicle deck stank of diesel while the passenger compartment smelled strongly of disinfectant and stale cigarette smoke (though to be fair all busses and trains smelled like that back then). Funny how makers of documentaries never mention these things.
i took a 2 week school exchange trip in 1990 via hover craft from Dover to Calais them returned the same route. it was special and became moreso when the service ended. it was an amazing adventure from start to finish because of the hover craft. thank you for sharing it's story.
I agree with your account of what it was like to travel on a cross channel hovercraft, but like flying on the Zeppelin it is an experience I prefer to brag about than contemplate repeating.
I remember by grandad took me to the coast to see one come in, load up and leave. I must have only been 5 or 6 and the thing was mind boggling. Adventure is definitely the word, even just looking at it
I did the huge 60 car capacity hovercraft crossing a couple of times and it was just fantastic and spectacular. One crossing was a bit rough and slightly uncomfortable, but nothing compared to a rough crossing on a regular car ferry. I'd love to see them return again.👍✌🇬🇧
@@brendancarter3453 .....it was a long time ago so I can't remember, but I dont think it was too awful. I think the engines were at the rear so front seats preferable✌️🇬🇧
@@brendancarter3453crossed the English Channel in a hovercraft years ago. Spectacular when it came out of the water at Dover, approached the terminal, spun around 180 degrees, and deflated. So many cars got off, amazing. The seas were a little rough crossing to France. The ride: quite fast, quite loud, and quite bumpy. I’d love to see how it moved on calm seas. But awesome and unforgettable.
@@NixodCreations Eh, I like both channels and don't mind, but to each their own. Bothers me a bit tho that the ground effect carrier video from Mustard is Nebula exclusive, because I reject subscription models no matter what.
I was a crew man on the SRN-4 Hovercraft in 1976, working for Hoverlloyd on it's Ramsgate to Calais service. We used to do three flights a day on a shift basis. My job was to marshal cars and busses and anything on wheels, into the car deck and then lash the vehicles to the deck to prevent movement during the flight. Then we would travel across on the 35-55 minute "flight" (time dependant on the sea state), I only did the one Summer season when many of us got made redundant afterwards. Lots of fond memories though. We use to get a duty free cigarette "ration" each month and as "staff", we could travel across and back for £1 (50p each way). Many of the "pilots" were airline crews on summer leave who went to the four week training course in Deal in Kent to train to operate the Hovercraft. We used to have great fun with the stewardesses too! It was a great job and they were amazing machines. The machines operated by Hoverlloyd could carry 250 passengers and up to 40 cars. Or 32 cars and two coaches. A wild time!
My mum was cabin crew and my dad was a captain with hoverlloyd pegwell bay too! We lived in broadstairs back then. Ur right he was a pilot too! And our house was always stocked with duty free benson and hedges
I went to The Isle of Wight on one of these nearly 50 years ago. They were smooth comfortable and lightingly fast. Sometimes recently, it feels like we’ve gone backwards when you think of Concorde, hovercraft , zeppelin style airships from the 1930s and even electric trolley buses from 100 years ago
it just feels like it. What we lost in sheer speed, we made up for in sheer efficiency. Those old wonderful dinosaurs were cool but they were stupidly inefficient and expensive. Transportation is a fine balance of cost, capacity and speed.
I couldn't agree more! You can't describe the breathtaking power of those 4 gigantic engines and props, especially as you stood there on the tarmac and it roared out of the sea and up the ramp, i was deeply saddened when Hoverspeed went out of business. Now you are stuck on a huge, slow, noisy floating Macdonalds with wall-to-wall video's, the crossing now takes nearly 3 hours instead of the 30 mins by Hovercraft, and that includes boarding and disembarking. Pfff...
I did a Channel crossing 50 years ago in one of those. Boulogne to Dover. I found it novel, but noisy, and the windows were covered with salt spray so there was no view to speak of. I also took a hydrofoil ferry to Block Island in Rhode Island a few years later, and that experience was better for me. I think the modern fast-catamaran ferries are a decent compromise.
This channel is one of the few I try to watch on a TV rather than my phone. This is not an upload, it's an event for me. Thank you so much for such inspiring topics.
If fuel cost and fuel consumption was the biggest nail in the hovercraft's coffin, that was my first thought, for a nuclear/electric version which currently powers submarines and aircraft carriers.
Oh shoot, just don't mention this to Elon....::) he will sell it to the gubmint for billions and deliver nothing, having done zero research on the matter. I once by accident dropped an oil-rag into the vertical blade of a small 2-man hovercraft, that broke the prop and wound the rag into something like a kevlar layer, took me ages to remove it.
@@chrisgraham2904 high fuel consumption = high energy consumption = will also be a problem for an electric version (its just not economic, people would have to overpay for the experience, 99% of the passengers however just want to get from A to B)
I always think it's interesting how something can be so cutting edge, so unique, and be viable in the 1960's as mainstream transportation yet here we are today in 2022 and I've never seen a hovercraft. It's almost like a parallel universe where hovercrafts never existed. We have ferries, and they move as slowly today as described in this video nearly a century ago, but it's as though the hovercraft was never invented at all. (At least to people in my generation.)
You were born in an era where the world stopped using imagination and innovation for travel. And instead focuses completely on cost effectiveness. Because that makes more $$$. The only thing that comes close to 1960s level imagination for public transport presently would be SpaceX.
@@SuperCatacata Agreed. Even if hovercrafts cost more to fuel and maintain, one would expect the technology to evolve and improve to reduce those limitations. Perhaps to the point where it would exist as a high-end alternative for rapid water transport. Just as we have private jets and limos to take people around at greater expense, I'm surprised the hovercraft can't make it as a high-end form of fast water-based travel for business people. Imagine being able to get from one side of town to the other in minutes rather than trying to fumble around changing busses, trains, etc. simply by using available waterways like large rivers or coastlines. Cities like New York, San Francisco, Miami, Chicago, etc... seem ideally suited to this sort of thing.
@@taekwondotime this is a similar story with the hydrofoil up until the 1970s. The main benefit behind of it is that at high speeds the foils lift the hull up, reducing water resistance and allowing for very high top speeds on water. You can see hydrofoils in action in the James Bond movies Thunderball as Emilio largo’s yacht, and The Man with the golden gun when bond takes a ferry from Hong Kong to Macau, passing by the capsized RMS Queen Elizabeth. However hydrofoils were relatively expensive and complex to operate which means the only new hydrofoils you see nowadays are naval corvettes. As for commercial hydrofoils still in use for passengers, the most well known civilian use of them is by the Hong Kong based ferry company TurboJet, which still operates 40+ year old Boeing 929 Jetfoils on their less trafficked routes but are slowly phasing them out.
My father was born at the right time to travel cheaply in Europe and see a few things that were gone before I was out of my teens myself. Communist Poland and the cross channel hovercraft were definitely the two highlights. Though while he had a few stories from travel through England, France and Poland, all he could report on the hovercraft was that it was very smooth, but the view out of the window was almost entirely obscured by spray.
I was part of a filming crew in the early 80’s for the arrival of one of these big ones at Calais for a fiction. Extremely impressive, to say the least, but very, very, very noisy. And even more problematic to a filming crew, this things were displacing gigantic sprays of salted water and sand, none of which is going well with any type of precision technical gear. One of these sand grains ended up inside the camera and ruined the shot by scraping the film. No electronic surgery available at the time. So the crew had to go back to Calais to shoot it again. And it was ruined again! But what magnificent machines these were! Very well worth the sighting,… and the ruined shots.
I was going through some slides the other day and found some from when my mother visited England in 1982. She had left as a 10 pound pom in 1954 and this was her only tip back there. Several of the slides were of a red hovercraft. I was amazed to see it. Unfortunately she died 13 years ago so I never had the chance to ask her about it.
There’s still a hovercraft operating between Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight. I saw it for the first time last year (unfortunately didn’t have time to take a passage), but it was super impressive to see it just come straight up the beach like nothing!
It’s a popular commuter route, although when the weathers bad they end up on the wightlink catamaran. Went on it a few times as a kid, and it’s noisy, although the newer models are probably better. It’s just the bad weather thing that puts me off now as it gets cancelled and you end up on a big detour. Always wanted to go on the big one, but my dad saw the one that flipped in the Solent shortly after I was born and he stopped liking them. You can visit one of the big ones in a museum in gosport, Hants
I grew up in a small village several miles from Dover, where the giant hovercraft ran daily to Calais. They were LOUD! You could hear them starting up from inside our house - a drone-like roar. They were also notorious for making people sick. They were known locally as the 'vomit comets'.
Er yes. The SeaCat were vomit comets. Not the hovercraft. They didn't have the reputation for making people sick. I think the difference is that the hovercraft motion was more akin to aircraft turbulence. Bumpy, not wavy. The SeaCat would corkscrew, a highly unpleasant motion.
I was very lucky to ride the hovercraft both ways across the Channel in 1977. It was a thrilling ride for a 13 year old and even my parents looked like they were getting a thrill. We almost didn't make it back from France as there was a storm brewing and we were the last hovercraft across for several days. You could feel each three meter wave we hit as the hovercraft would slow down and then speed up again like a drunken sailor. It was brilliant! Still a thrill of my life all these years later. They were way ahead of their time.
I never realized how small the hovercraft market really was! I'm American and was born in Belgium in 1977. My family always took the hovercraft to England to visit friends and family. I used to assume the hovercraft was as popular worldwide as a plane or train. Good video. Thanks!
In the 1980s my parents and I regularly travelled on these giant Hovercrafts between UK and FR. As a kid it was like going into a spaceship. You’d get the cool rise of the craft and slow crawl into the sea, then then it would really pick up speed and you’d arrive in no time. Services used to be canceled if the seas were rough, but on one occasion it was rough part way and I have never vomited more in my life !!
Hovercraft were phased out before my time and before I had ever been to the UK. I learnt about them a few years ago and from someone who had never seen or heard about them before in real life, they seem like pure science fiction! A giant semi-flying craft which could travel faster than cars on the highway and many small planes, with carrying capacity over a hundred tons. Incredible machines and a shame that they didn't find a way to make them more economically viable - it does appear that they still had room to scale up and become even more efficient! Hopefully they come back some day.
The worlds last scheduled Hovercraft service runs between Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight. They offer cheap fares if you just want a joyride and come straight back without disembarking.
Why hasn't anyone considered incorporating a few sets of hydrofoil mechanisms into it? The mechanism retracts when leaving or landing, but pops up when traveling at sea, providing additional physical support rather than a pure air cushion. It also provides more stability with less wobble for a more comfortable trip.
@@iqbang9236 The big fast catamaran ferrries invented by Incat in 1990 (and improved a lot since) efectively put both hovercraft and hydrofoils out of business. They use far less fuel, offer a more stable ride and operate at about the same speed. That's why today there are two big shipyards specialising in fast cat ferries over 100 metres long and none building commercial hydrofoils or hovercraft. :(
@@Dave_Sisson Catamarans are not a new invention, thanks to Pacific Islanders. The problem with a catamaran is its weight sensitivity and high sea restrictions. Use as a ferry of course limits its downsides. A hovercraft with a hydrofoil mechanism still has an advantage in mid-coast transportation, it's just waiting for someone to take their first bite.
@@iqbang9236 I think I would have heard of it if Polynesian islanders had built 1,000 passenger catamarans powered by water jets. But it's possible that their invention of this technology escaped my attention.
Another aspect of hover crafts is almost no wake. My first introduction to hovercraft was about 1971 as a boy fishing with my stepdad off the coast of Point Roberts (NW corner of the US/ SW corner of Canada). We were in a small (16ft) motor boat and this quite large (relative to us) boat came way too close to us for its size and was traveling at speed. We were hanging on expecting to get really thrown around / maybe capsized by the wake. And then... no wake. Weird. I later learned that was a new (at the time) hovercraft the military was testing. I also wonder if they were messing with us or just didn't take into account the average civilian at the time may not have known what they were 'driving'.
I was "lucky" enough to ride on the cross channel hover craft in the 1990s just before the service shutdown, it made me seasick and my head rang during and for hour or more after the crossing, but was still very cool way to travel and a great memory from my childhood
Same for me in the 80s. Calais - Dover in a quick Way. Much better than the slow Ferry. Seasickness was much worse on those slow Ferrys especially in heavy weather and machine trouble.
@Ray Merlin Sorry, but that was 40 Years ago in my Twentys. My memory about this time is a little bit fragmented. We had a lot of beverages in our cars for our guest family. A german Weizen is always welcome ;-)
@Ray Merlin Sure I will be happy to, I hope it helps. It's was just after euro tunnel had opened summer 1994 as remember my mum sister wanted travel on that and myself and dad wanted use the hover craft. Something had broken on the hover craft and we were nearly hour late boarding (so mustard is right they were unreliable) the waiting area was like small airports departure lounge which I thought it was odd as you parked your car going with you on the top of ramp hovercaft was waiting on. I do not remember much about loading the car but was through central door at front, then you ushered into one on rooms ran down each side of the craft those areas reminded me of inside of 747 and you were expected stay seat for most journey unlike ferries on same route which more floating shopping centers at that time. The journey was choppy which explains sea sickness and I had hoped you could see the journey out windows but there was so much spray it was like being passenger in car in very bad storm you see nothing but water past the window, and being bounced all over place, we might just bad weather on our trip. We came back few weeks later after our holiday in France but I really do not remember much detail about the return leg. This ended up being rather long reply sorry :) but interesting much I remembered from that long ago.
@Ray Merlin choppy similar to bad air turbulence on plane, the noise came from engines that I remember, as they were turboprop engines like on commercial propeller passages planes, the noise was like standing near run way with turboprop plane taking off for 30 minute journey
I've travelled on both the SRN4 and Concorde. The hovercraft was fantastic because it was much quicker than a ferry. A bit bumpy but quick. The Channel Tunnel killed it. Another stunning British invention that was a commercial failure. For niche uses like military and quick passenger trips they are still unbeatable.
Lol, why would military use it when they have helicopters and jet boats? Those fuckers are so loud and hard to pilot the smaller they are. There is a reason no one uses them anymore. Same reason there is no hydrofoil boats anymore. Same thing with hypersonic public transport. You have to remember there is a whole back end logistics and maintenance that usually kills designs like this or makes them not fit for commercial use.
Only Japan and US military have them. US wastes so much on shit they never use I bet most of 74 they have are never used at all. Like how do you even deploy one across the world? In a huge ship. Really seems redundant for modern military use.
I live in NY but I grew up going to Nantucket MA during the summer. It’s about 25 miles or so off the coast of Cape Cod but a catamaran fast ferry takes almost an hour, and the car ferry takes almost 4. A hovercraft to make the trip between Hyannis and Nantucket or Hyannis and Martha’s Vineyard would be game changing.
@@EricHamm do your research. The Royal Marines operate hovercraft due to their speed and ability to operate on sea, land , marsh etc. The US still operates large hovercraft because they can get heavy vehicles onto a beach without needing a port
@@EricHamm Hovercraft are used by the military mostly for high-speed deployment of heavy systems like main battle tanks, artillery, and large formations of troops as well as logistical elements. In the military environment fuel economy is not a major consideration for these machines, nor is maintenance. Any modern military drinks fuel like water, and maintenance is performed by the troops themselves.
Mister Mustard, some kudos for you - your videos are a 10 out of 10. Your voice work is excellent, you seem to be a natural for voicing documentary-style videos - you have good pitch, intonation, and diction, while maintaining an easy, confident manner. The graphics and 3-D models are superb, your choice of music is great, the editing is excellent. You've 100% found your niche. Well done.
A data point: I travelled on the hovercraft twice when I was younger. Both times, the departure was delayed due to mechanical problems. It was a lot of fun though.
Being nearly sixty now I remember going on a school trip to France in 77 and going on the SRN.4, the one overriding thing I recall is the noise it made but it was an amazing experience. The only disappointment about the trip was that we had to get the ferry back as the return trip was canceled due to mechanical problems. Great video, excellent presentation.
Loved the editing of this video. Thank you for showing archive footage and resisting the urge to add a load of annoying glitches/distortion video effects and loud static noises. Great work.
France built a hovering air train monorail back in the 70’s but cancelled it due to lack of operational efficiency. The TGV was the winning technology ultimately selected and given France’s vast nuclear energy grid, the required electricity is CO2 neutral.
Aren't maglev trains like the Transrapid technically "tracked hovercraft" as they do float/hover over the rails (albeit just a few millimeters) and reach speeds of 500 km/h?
As an 11 year old kid, I had the pleasure of travelling on these amazing beasts while on vacation in Margate with my English stepfather. It was definitely a trip to remember. I’m lucky to have the privilege to have experienced a ride on one. The ride was noisy, fairly rough and dirty. I don’t know why they had windows because once you got going you couldn’t see out of them because of the spray and sand! It was still a cool way to cross the channel and that 11 year old kid has fond memories of that experience! Cheers, John now 59
Here in Brazil, the coast guard and military still use hovercraft, primarily as search and rescue craft. You seem them pretty often whenever there's news about the coast guard searching for castaways at sea.
I had a few plastic model kits of these beasts that I built during the early 70s; I still remember how detailed and cool they were. Looking at the drawings in this video brought the insides of these kits back to mind - they came with little trucks and cars for the ferry deck, and meticulously gluing down the rows of seats in the passenger section was a time-consuming effort...
In February 1978 I picked up a new Citroen CX PRESTIGE, drive from Paris to Dieppe in foul weather. Took the morning hovercraft to Newhaven. Just over one hour's flight. I mentioned to a crew member that I was straight from Australia and the car was one day old. 10 minutes later I was invited to join the Captain in the cockpit. A fabulous view set high up at the front. Propellors on pylons whirring away. 30 minutes later I came down to find my car had been washed and chamoisied compliments of the Captain. Such an exciting way to arrive for a year working in the UK. Equally exciting was leaving the UK in July 1979 by Concorde for New York. Little did I expect that both flying fabulous machines would disappear with high operating costs.. I feel very privileged now that I am nearly 70.
Ha ha ha! This takes me back! My dad used to love hovercraft, we used to make them out of bits and pieces around the house, he got me a radio controlled hovercraft and we even went on that huge hovercraft to Calais! I had a window seat and it was very dark and foggy outside. Thanks for that bit of nostalgia!
Saunders Roe truly put out some of the most amazing engineering marvels that I've ever seen. They were truly innovators, maybe not efficient, but they were innovators of the industry.
As a kid, I lived in Calais in the 80s, and I had the chance to see them some time to time, and I was always captivated seeing them rise up, their skirt inflating, then slowly turning toward the sea, leaving the beach, floating above the sea. I felt sad when they announced they will no longer operate and even if I couldn't really understand why at the time, it felt obvious their popularity was fading (as a child / pre-teen, I didn't know the economics of it, but the lack of passenger was pretty eveident in the lat 80s- early 90s), and the intense price competition imposed by the ferry lines certainly didn't help. It's hard to compete against travel prices for foot passenger around 10 Francs (~1 $ at the time or
Just one small thing about the hovercraft, in Britain, there are still two operating between the Isle of Wight and Portsmouth, and those machines always amaze me when I'm on a ferry and they shoot past and get across on only 10 mins. Shame they were pulled before they reached their potential. Good video as always
The thing is, they *did* reach their potential. It's stupidly inefficient to blow a ton of air down through a fragile skirt to float above the water when you could just... float in the water for "free". The only scenario these things make sense is essentially amphibious assault or cargo delivery over undeveloped watery terrain (like some places in Alaska).
I remember seeing a hovercraft depicted in the Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown special when I was a kid and being immediately curious about what that weird looking thing was. Still fascinated by them today.
I'm so thankful to have been able to make the Dover to Calais crossing on one of these behemoths several times in my youth. These machines absolutely mesmerized me.
I bet it was a cool experience! I am glad I went to the top of the World Trade Center in the 1980's. Same kind of feeling and longing for the past IMO.
This is literally professional Natural Geographic level content. Its so well done and the way it is explained actually makes something even more interesting, than it already is. Keep going and thank you for letting my day end in a little more interested about this topic
I was on one of these when it went very badly. Sent out in seas that the hovercraft was NEVER made for. I have never been so scared, people injured, people screaming. Damn that was so long ago and I still remember it all.
I worked on the refits in 1997 and it was fantastic. I lived across from the Hoverport on my boat in Dover Marina. I still have two folding stewardess seats that were taken out during that refit on my boat. On sea trials, unloaded even after 30 years and with many many layers of paint, it could do 107mph unloaded. Hoverspeed were trying to replace the Hovercraft with the sea cat, or as we called it, the Spew Cat. It was just no match as the turn around time on the Hovecraft meant that the bootleggers buying Duty Free whisky and cigarettes could make 5 return trips a day. As the bootleggers were living in the car park at Dover and were bootlegging between return trips to the north of the UK every two weeks to collect unemployment money, they wanted to fit in as many trips as they could.
Yeah they were the days … one day I managed a ferry crossing a sea cat and a hovercraft ….The only time I ever felt sea sick was on the sea cat which was strange because it was far rougher sea earlier in the day . It was a hard job but someone had to do it 😂
I also did the re-fits in 98 and the final one in 99. Bloody cold on that ramp wasn't it lol. Thankfully I only had to spend a month on the roof. The rest of my time was spent either on the car deck or in the boyancy tanks. The tanks are not a place to be if you have claustrophobia.
@@just-another-guy ah I remember those tanks. A guy I was working with insisted that we did not need the headsets to do up the bolts on the deck panels. So he went down into the tanks and I held the screwdriver up above trying to guess which bolts he would do. I struggled for about half an hour to figure which he was on. I could hear a bit of banging from below. Anyway turns out he had a complete freak out and went ballistic in a rage as he would try to do up a nut and I would be on the wrong one. I went down later and nuts were everywhere! All the cardboard boxes were torn up. He would not talk to me for days as he thought I was messing him about. But yes bad place to be for a claustrophobic. I was down there one day and the inspection light broke, that was interesting… The funny thing is that where I work now, health and safety people make a big fuss about confined spaces and seem to consider anything to be confined. I think they would go bananas if they saw those tanks.
@@SailingSVPipedream hahaha that's funny dude. Not easy to do the deck withough headsets lol. We once had a guy turn up to do the roof skins with us. "Loads of air frame fitting experience." Started trying to take the skins off with a hammer and chisel. I think he lasted about an hour there. We also had a kiddy who used to go into the tanks and make himself a nice mouse nest out of the cardboard. He would sleep in there for hours lol. Yeah health and safety wouldn't fly on that job. You just got on with it and got it done.
Used the hoverspeed service to France in 1986. I was only 9 years old but I remember the sensation as the craft lifted and edged to the water very vividly. It felt soooooo fast when we were out on the water. Years later I was lucky enough to pilot a hovercraft on the Solent as part of a corporate team building day. Lots of fun seamlessly flying across the water and over sandbanks but you REALLY had to think ahead.
I must have been less than 10 years old when I crossed for the first and only time the English Channel in a hovercraft. I still have a vivid memory of this incredible experience. I mostly remember the noise but also the hovering motion as soon as the skirt was inflated and the hovercraft lifted itself off the ground turning on itself effortlessly. In a way it almost felt like a helicopter ride without gaining altitude. The crossing itself was quite confortable (if you leave aside the noise and vibrations) as we were literally flying above the water. We would occasionally feel a soft bump when a bigger wave crossed our path but it was really gentle.
I lived near Dover and Margate. Several of my mentors worked on early hovercraft development. You failed to properly mention the primary reason they failed. As they were a non displacement craft and were airborne the certification and maintenance was as an aircraft not a ship. Roughly 4 times the cost per PAX (passenger mile). The last passenger hovercraft service was still operating a couple of years ago to the Isle of Wight off the Solent
One trip we went on to France was in bad weather and the pilot gleefully told us we were on the edge of operational limits! It was a very rough trip and people were throwing up around us in to sick bags left right and centre. The return trip was a bit smoother. It seemed apparent that this was more of a fair weather travel system than any traditional ship. It was great to have had an experience of this system. Luckily we were not sick but just a touch anxious as it did seem not really designed for everything the Channel could throw at a vessel.
@Michael D, have you ever been on a rough channel crossing by ferry? Much worse than the hovercraft, and people are sick even on a slightly rough crossing. I was on a force 10 gale crossing from Calais to Dover, 4 hours..... ok, we were held waiting to enter Dover port, in st Margaret's bay. I applaud the huge hovercraft and what it was capable of, they really were fantastic.👍👍✌🇬🇧
@@okgo8315 Difficult to see the comparison as the operating limit for a SRN4 was 40 knots mean speed which would be Force 8 I presume. My point was the vessels were not really up to everything the channel can give. Look at the damage report for the Princess Anne on 29th Feb, 2000. The erratic banging, lurching and crashing of the hovercraft and all just above sea level are unlike anything I have experienced on a ship in similar weather conditions. They were a marvellous idea at the time but they did not stand up to the test of the time. I am glad I travelled on one of the big ones.
I love the format of Mustard's videos. At the beginning of the video, you end up thinking, 'this tech sounds great, why didn't it catch on?', and then two thirds in you're like, 'oh... That's why...'
I never actually rode on the hovercraft, but I remember one day we sat on the cliffs at Dover overlooking the channel and watched the hovercraft crossing. It was only a couple of years before they were stopped. The main thing I remember, is how loud they were. You could literally hear when they set off from France, and then all across the water until they landed. People living in the houses nearby must have been glad when they were cancelled.
Great topic. In early 2010's I met a community that was rebuilding them and looking for lots of engineering help to donate. They were hype on the hovercrafts.
i love Mustard because i love the videos, so what we don't get a video every week, but a. good video every 2 months, I love his videos because I learn about vehicles I never even knew existed before and its amazing.
I was fortunate enough to travel on a hovercraft as a child in the early 90's I can't remember much about the experience, except for the sound. It was really quite unusual, like 100 helicopters taking off at once close by. Watching this makes me sad I wasn't a little older, as it's not something I'll get to do again. Just never realised it at the time.
Finally a new video! Great work as usual, keep it up! Some suggestions for future videos: Airbus A380 and F-22 Raptor and perhaps one on Titanic and its sisterships.
I remember traveling to the Isle of Wight on one as a kid. Scary seeing a big air blowing beast come out of the water up onto land effortlessly. Back when Britain were at the forefront of ingenuity.
I made a couple of trips as kid on the SRN4, visiting relatives in the UK. While very impressive to watch the beast approaching from sea and then effortlessly landing on tarmac, kicking up water, sand and dust and making a beautiful low droning noise, the flight itself was anything but. Very bumpy and shaky, I also remember the interior being surprisingly unkempt (mid 1990s).
I took the hovercraft from Calais to Dover in the early 70’s . They were going to cancel the flight due to weather but decided to proceed anyway. At mid way the swell was pretty high…. Amongst the guests were a large group of persons with disabilities. The lady beside me could not control her movements and started to look a quite palish but fortunately at the right time I was able to reach her face with the baggies provided in the back seat pocket , Puke , Puke. Well once the smell of it propagated the area they were general contamination and to my knowledge the most Vomit ever Experienced by myself and most likely crew. I’ll never forget the height and effect of that Channel swell !😝
I travelled on one of those huge hovercraft back and forth from England to France during the 1970s. I remember being disappointed (I was 7-9 years old at the time) that I couldn’t see us actually floating on air and only saw the “skirt”. Also, the noise and mist generated each time was tremendous. I also remember my father loading up the car inside and it had to be locked down in special braces for the wheels so the car wouldn’t roll around. All in all though, it was a pretty cool experience each time. But yeah, it was a completely 1970s thing I guess. 😃
I met a hovercraft pilot when I was a kid in the 90's and I've had a fascination with them since. They're so cool to watch transfer into different terrains at wild speeds. This video just reminded me that I still need to buy a small one to check off a long standing bucket list item.
You can still catch a hovercraft from Southsea beach, Portsmouth to (and from) the Isle of Wight. The Channel hovercraft was taken out of service years ago though, unfortunately. The 3 million pound cost of the skirts was a factor
Came here to say this! Unfortunately those are just small passenger hovercraft. But they're still incredibly cool. (Also technically they run from Southsea, not Portsmouth! It's the ferries that go from Portsmouth.) Hovertravel who operate them also sometimes run excursions out to Lee-on-Solent where the Hovercraft Museum is. There you can see the last civilian giant hovercraft and hear the tragic story of how they were utterly failed to be preserved in anything that could remotely be returned into working order.
@@BongoBaggins Ah, fair enough, honestly didn't realise that. Thought it was one of those cases where it was two places right next to each other but separate, like Poole and Bournemouth (at least until the recent council unification). Happy to be corrected :). According to Wikipedia they've not been separate places since 1904!
There is an amazing collection of hovercraft at the Hovercraft Museum at HMS Daedalus near Portsmouth, and I visited with my son just over a decade ago. We were the only people there (you actually have to phone in advance to get them to let you in). We saw some really interesting vehicles including some that were used in Bond movies, one that used to belong to the Queen, and I have a photo of my son sitting in the cockpit of an SR.N4! Very interesting place, and well worth a visit if you can arrange it.
I crossed the English Channel in the hovercraft in a stormy day in August 1992, it was a unique and an amazing experience, those impressive 4 proppellers, hughe and powerful turbines, great speed a lot of cars and people.
I travelled on one of those giant hovercrafts from Dover to Calais before it all shut down. They felt incredibly cool and Sci fi in the 90s and it's a shame that like the concord they didn't last.
In the early 90s my wife and I had a crossing booked from Dover to Calais. We were running very late and raced by road hoping to catch the craft. We arrived just as it was about to leave and for some reason, we were waved straight into the craft and drove inside, the tailgate was shut and it left immediately. The crossing only took just under half an hour and as soon as it landed in France, the front door was opened and we were let off first! In 1994 we took the earliest rides on the channel tunnel train. this was nowhere near as quick as the loading and queuing process was longwinded. In contrast, the hovercraft service had loaded and unloaded its relatively small number of cars very quickly. So on that day, we drove from a road in England to a road in France in 30 minutes, something unthinkable and impossible today on public transport.
I drive past one of these SRN4s on a regular basis, sat there looking awesome! I used to live next door to the Airfield that it is sat on. I do remember when there were two of them sat there, sadly not anymore. Although very nearby is a commercial hovercraft service that is still operational and I have been on it quite a few times, from Southsea to the Isle Of Wight. Great video, thank you!
The museum is seriously underappreciated. They had to sell one SRN4 to be scrapped a few years ago and desperately need visitors, so please go see it if you're in the area.
I rode the hovercraft across the English Channel from Dover in 1994 as a kid. I had seen it in cartoon form on a "Charlie Brown" movie, when the Peanuts followed the same route, some years earlier, and I was excited to finally ride it. While I don't remember a lot of it, I still remember being surprised at how much it was like riding in an airplane, except with the safety training focusing on life vests, with no mention of oxygen masks. I remember getting up from my seat to go look out at the sea as we went. I also remember being a bit disappointed that it was SO much like being a passenger on an airplane, as I'd done that so many times before across the US! Man, I hadn't thought about that in YEARS! I'm sad to hear that they no longer run at all, but I suppose I'm not surprised. After all, I made a similar trip with friends in 2008, and we traveled by train via the "Chunnel". Really, while riding in a tunnel under the sea was a little creepy, the comfort of the train was much higher than the hovercraft, I think. Nonetheless, hovercrafts do still seem almost magical.
![[LIVE] : ONE ลุมพินี 87 วันนี้!! คู่เอก "ก้องชัย vs โชคปรีชา"](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YN6e7HVnekw/mqdefault.jpg)
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Watch ‘Tracked Hovercraft: Britain's Train to Nowhere’ here: nebula.tv/videos/mustard-tracked-hovercraft-britains-train-to-nowhere
Kapal nya sangat hangat canggih dan hemat biaya..salam dari Indonesia 🇮🇩
India & Britain Joint Partnership Tracked Hovercraft:
What is the song you use in the introduction?
@@fluidize8532 I would like to know that myself. I remember that song from the 1980s.
I remember BBC news reporting on the final SRN4 crossing, opening with:
"they are awesome, they're still the fastest way to get to France and they're still profitable, but the cross Channel Hovercraft are for the chop. In this business, competing against the Channel Tunnel, packing in the cars is the key to maximum profits. The hovercraft just doesn't take enough. But those who fly it say the hovercraft has a cult following,"
The Princess Anne hovercraft holds the unofficial speed record for the quickest channel crossing, 22 minutes between Dover and Calais (it's unofficial because the Channel has a speed limit of 60 Knots and to set the unofficial record, they travelled far quicker than that)
I went on a hovercraft the day before they closed it. It was very enjoyable, bit choppy on the journey back but it was tinged with sadness knowing that it was going to be my first and last time I was going to travel by hovercraft.
@@marioavossa Hovercraft were phased out before my time and before I had ever been to the UK. I learnt about them a few years ago and from someone who had never seen or heard about them before in real life, they seem like pure science fiction! A giant semi-flying craft which could travel faster than cars on the highway and many small planes, with carrying capacity over a hundred tons. Incredible machines and a shame that they didn't find a way to make them more economically viable - it does appear that they still had room to scale up and become even more efficient! Hopefully they come back some day.
...the English Channel has a speed limit?! I have no idea why this fact surprises me, the idea of waterways having speed limits obviously makes some sense (Although with open water shared between nations like that, is it some French/British treaty that governs it?).
I just find the idea of speed limits on the open ocean really amusing for some reason. Like the idea of posted signs on buoys and cops in cutters trying to pull you over for breaking the speed limit...
@@Tinil0 the reason is for the sheer number of vessels using that 22 Mile stretch of water that separates Britain from France. When Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May tried to set a record for the fastest Channel Crossing by an amphibious car, they had to be constantly on the alert for ships on their course. Indeed, in one of their false starts, they caused a Seacat to dodge them, which led to them being told off by the police, and even when they were properly underway, the Coast Guard swooped in low to try and identify them and asked them on the radio about what their intentions were
@@Tinil0 English Channel / La Manche is not open ocean! The busiest sea lane in the world is much more like a motorway with multiple crossing roads without roundabouts or traffic lights. Compare a road system with vast lorries that have huge turning circles and stopping zones plus bicycles and disability scooters all running criss-cross and diagonally across the motorway. Lane discipline and speed restrictions vital
There is still an active Hovercraft service running between Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight in the UK. The service used the smaller SRN6 hovercraft up until 2016, where they changed to a newer design. It’s cool to see them in action, and it is still a really quick way to get across to the island (takes approx. 10 mins compared to a 45 minute journey by ferry).
They are great. On a clear day you can see them set off from Portsmouth front and you can see them go over and land on the IOW (where they were originally made). Amazingly fast but as many have said -they are very noisy.
You beat me to posting this. Thank you
Got buzzed by it on a sailing trip at dusk, low-displacement vessels have spinning amber beacons and seeing that coming out of the twilight was an experience. Also air wash is really weird to deal with.
The key reason they're still used for this crossing is that it actually makes uses of the advantages of a hovercraft. Ryde sands stretch out almost a mile meaning your choice is either maintaining a pier or using something like a hovercraft!
Yes It was on the show hunted
My first ride was accidental. We had booked for a catamaran crossing from Dover to Dunkirque; but there was a maintenance issue. We were offered the hovercraft to Calais as an alternative and boarded directly. In next to no time we were in France. It was an exhilarating experience and I greatly regret their passing.
Exactly the same happened to me and my family when I was a boy!
Now imagine that, but it's big enough to fit a small restaurant and your car
God, i hate when technologies like these become obsolete :(
å
Same happened to me when I was a kid
Did you enjoy it? I heard that one of the major reasons for their passing was because they were noisy and not that comfortable for passengers. They were definitely not easy to control during strong winds and each seat has a vomit bag for that same reason.
This channel is 10x better than the History Channel’s vehicular content, where all they talk about are the WW2 vehicles we’ve seen hundreds of times.
I thought the only transport the History Cnannel covered was alien spacecraft? It seems that aliens, nazis and zombies are 90% of their content these days.
I totally agreee
History Channel is just an entertainment conspiracy theory show
Vouch
And today it's the Channel channel.
it's a good day when mustard uploads.
He uploads as fast as technobalde
Yep,just like Tupac said
@@traingod6248 I have waited for a week and finally he uploaded.
Ong
Indeed
I used to work on the Hovercraft between Dover and Calais! Loved those crafts and was sad when they were decommissioned! Fun facts about the Crafts:
- USA tourists used to ask some crazy questions and often asked where the wheels were and how they ran along the bottom of the ocean
- In rough weather the rubber skirt often smacked the front windows leaving us rather worried!
- In super rough weather we would speed along the beaches as far as we could on the French side for a few miles before we entered the water
- The fastest crossing we ever did was 27 mins, although 22 mins was the top record I believe
- The Roles Royce engines often went tech and the rubber skirt needed repair weekly!
- We once lost 2 engines and had to crawl back but still made it
- People think it was the Channel Tunnel that "sunk" the service, but the cost of the rubber skirt and engines were astronomical to repair and specialised staff/engineers needed (not to mention the massive loses to organised staff theft)
- We used to land on the Goodwin Sands for organised cricket games.
- All crew were cross trained to air cabin crew standard and had to learn about the craft including the engines and be onboard fire fighters. We trained on board very regularly and you would have been in very good hands had an accident occurred (unlike the ferries)
- The crafts are rafted into sections so if there was an explosion it would be very hard to sink!
EDIT : An additional fact added 1 year after posting this as someone raised a very good point that he couldn't see anything out the window because of spray.....
- Your view depended upon your seat (as well as the crossing conditions). If you booked a front seat they were considered for the "runners". People that did day trips for the duties (duty frees) - (sometimes back to back round trips all day) always booked the front. It was the cheapest seat and the roughest ride and you never got to see out the windows for all the spray hitting the front of the craft. The further back you booked the more expensive the seat, and also the smoother the ride, and of course window view without spray. This was the middle section of the craft and serviced by another section of crew. Then there was a curtained off VIP section right at the back of the craft also, which was serviced by another VIP crew member. It was the smoothest ride on the craft and also the best view. All seasonal staff were stationed at the front, and the more you had a mum or dad working within the company the better your station at the back of the craft ;) This arrangement of class passengers and staff was mirrored both sides of the craft.
(not to mention the massive loses to organised staff theft) .... Tell me more ?
Great facts, thanks! My family took an SR4 from Dover to Calais in the summer of 1969. Absolutely amazing! I had looked forward to that part of our trip since dad told me his plan to cross the channel like this. It did not disappoint. We had 6-8 ft. waves that day and it seemed to handle them fine. But I was most amazed at just how enormous the craft was. How would something this huge and full of cars even get off the ground? 4 Massive Rolls Royce engines was the answer. We crossed in right about 30 min.
The loss of duty free didn't help either.
@@HQBergeron It did handle waves well and if you were seated in the middle or back of the craft which was for the first & middle class passengers you normally had a good crossing! The front servery was were I served and where the "runners" were located and it was where all the action was at :D The front of the craft is much more choppy and took the brunt of the action! Good to hear your happy memories! Everyone that I speak to that worked onboard or staff side, and those that experienced crossings with them have a certain happy nostalgia :) It was a sad day when they were decommissioned!
@@vjpearce You might think that....but I was onboard when the change happened! The runners that were the majority of Hoverspeeds business went from being able to buy 1 bottle of spirits and 200 cigs to being able to purchase unlimited amounts! We literally could not stock enough when they turned up with over £1000 in cash each for their orders! They would run to the servery to try to bribe us before we even left the Pad to mke us serve them first as they all knew we would run out of stock after maybe 1-4 orders (we only had so much space each crossing for stock and also I think we had a limit to adhere to with each servery?). There were many orders that we could not do, and many runners kicked off annoyed as they had wasted a round trip to France without purchasing duties onboard (although they still would have manged to get some stock shoreside in Calais).
Mustard - the very definition of quality above quantity.
I can't think of another channel I get this excited for whenever I get a notification from it.
Keep doing what you're doing. Thank you.
LeMMiNO
You should check out Lemmino!
Real Engineering and Found & Explained also have really high quality stuff. Found & Explained has basically the same video format too.
overused comment that its lost all its meaning
@@JustJohn505 ok and? They make good content and how does it lose meaning? If a ton of people call breaking bad a really good show does that make it bad?
I remember taking these as a kid, unforgettable experience of crossing the channel. Not that you'd see much through the windows (there often was a lot of water spray and condensation), but it was such a cool machine, the noise it makes as it comes to you on the apron, the speed, entering on the opened ramp, the cushioning feeling... great engineering... Concorde of the sea.
I loved watching them arrive 😆☺️
Mana
Bet it was loud!
I've been living in western Alaska for the last several years. There are no highways out here so when the rivers freeze in the winter the only way to get things here is by air cargo. I think hovercraft could be useful out here. People drive their trucks on the frozen rivers so they should be able use a hover craft.
You're absolutely right Charles. In fact, you would be able to navigate many more frozen rivers using a hovercraft than using a truck. A hovercraft spreads its weight over the entire undersurface of the vehicle, whereas a truck pushes down through the relatively small area of the tyre contact patches. So the *average* ground pressure of a hovercraft is much less than a truck, so it would be able to travel over much softer ground (or even water).
woah, that WOULD be useful I bet! I wonder how the fuel consumption would compare vs an air cargo plane? Although planes have the advantage of being able to take a direct route over mountains. As a replacement for trucks over ice though, I bet hovercraft would be a lot safer! Even if the ice breaks you'd still stay afloat.
They do use them.
@@kc5402 What if it goes over sharp rocks? Poof.
An hovercraft is much safer than a truck or a bus running on a frozen river whose lack of thickness may be dangerous for goods and persons.
Their high fuel consumption wouldn't be a problem regarding all the favours they can give, chiefly in the US where energy is cheaper.
I remember travelling on an SRN4.
Watching it arrive was a truly impressive sight as it approached over the water before coming to rest on the apron. Though it was HUGE it majestically pirouetted on the apron before unloading.
Traveling on it is something I will never forget. It was noisy and *everything* vibrated yet there was a definite impression of speed - more like being in an aeroplane than a boat. While under way conversations were mostly conducted by yelling.
Despite the downsides of travelling on a hovercraft it was a most marvellous adventure. Having experienced it I can understand why it was such a popular way to cross the Channel. It's right up there with flying on a Zeppelin or Concorde.
I was quite young when I crossed the channel on an SRN4, but the two things I remember vividly are the noise and the vibration. It felt like you were riding in the belly of a roaring mechanical beast that was moments away from shaking itself to pieces.
@@bad_haired_sam I also vividly remember the smell. The vehicle deck stank of diesel while the passenger compartment smelled strongly of disinfectant and stale cigarette smoke (though to be fair all busses and trains smelled like that back then).
Funny how makers of documentaries never mention these things.
i took a 2 week school exchange trip in 1990 via hover craft from Dover to Calais them returned the same route. it was special and became moreso when the service ended. it was an amazing adventure from start to finish because of the hover craft. thank you for sharing it's story.
I agree with your account of what it was like to travel on a cross channel hovercraft, but like flying on the Zeppelin it is an experience I prefer to brag about than contemplate repeating.
I remember by grandad took me to the coast to see one come in, load up and leave. I must have only been 5 or 6 and the thing was mind boggling. Adventure is definitely the word, even just looking at it
Mustard always has weirdly entertaining videos that happen to be really good
and they have so much rewatchabilty.
Indeed, ever since the first one about razor blades in bathroom walls. There hasn't been a single Mustard video I haven't liked!
Mustard always has really entertaining videos that happen to be weirdly good.
@@Strideo1 Each of them are perfection
I did the huge 60 car capacity hovercraft crossing a couple of times and it was just fantastic and spectacular. One crossing was a bit rough and slightly uncomfortable, but nothing compared to a rough crossing on a regular car ferry. I'd love to see them return again.👍✌🇬🇧
What was the noise like? I’ve never seen a hovercraft in person before but my natural impression of them is that they must be very loud!
@@brendancarter3453 .....it was a long time ago so I can't remember, but I dont think it was too awful.
I think the engines were at the rear so front seats preferable✌️🇬🇧
@@brendancarter3453crossed the English Channel in a hovercraft years ago. Spectacular when it came out of the water at Dover, approached the terminal, spun around 180 degrees, and deflated. So many cars got off, amazing. The seas were a little rough crossing to France. The ride: quite fast, quite loud, and quite bumpy. I’d love to see how it moved on calm seas. But awesome and unforgettable.
This is the best production quality channel on TH-cam. Obsessed with these videos 😛😛😛
Thanks so much for watching :)
@@MustardChannel The pleasure is all mine, great job with this content - outstanding
yes
What a coincidence I watch both of these channels
There is no other channel like this fitting do much information into a short amount of time keeping the audiences attention. Such a good youtuber
Thank you - awesome complement :)
@@MustardChannel you diserve it man
@@bother9732 Found&Explained is another amazing, quite similar channel if you are interested ;)
@@vgames1543 found&explained is trying so hard to be a direct copy of mustard that early on he even copied mustards speech patterns
@@NixodCreations Eh, I like both channels and don't mind, but to each their own. Bothers me a bit tho that the ground effect carrier video from Mustard is Nebula exclusive, because I reject subscription models no matter what.
I was a crew man on the SRN-4 Hovercraft in 1976, working for Hoverlloyd on it's Ramsgate to Calais service. We used to do three flights a day on a shift basis. My job was to marshal cars and busses and anything on wheels, into the car deck and then lash the vehicles to the deck to prevent movement during the flight. Then we would travel across on the 35-55 minute "flight" (time dependant on the sea state), I only did the one Summer season when many of us got made redundant afterwards. Lots of fond memories though. We use to get a duty free cigarette "ration" each month and as "staff", we could travel across and back for £1 (50p each way). Many of the "pilots" were airline crews on summer leave who went to the four week training course in Deal in Kent to train to operate the Hovercraft. We used to have great fun with the stewardesses too! It was a great job and they were amazing machines. The machines operated by Hoverlloyd could carry 250 passengers and up to 40 cars. Or 32 cars and two coaches. A wild time!
My mum was cabin crew and my dad was a captain with hoverlloyd pegwell bay too! We lived in broadstairs back then. Ur right he was a pilot too! And our house was always stocked with duty free benson and hedges
I went to The Isle of Wight on one of these nearly 50 years ago. They were smooth comfortable and lightingly fast. Sometimes recently, it feels like we’ve gone backwards when you think of Concorde, hovercraft , zeppelin style airships from the 1930s and even electric trolley buses from 100 years ago
I guess it comes down to cost effectiveness; hovercraft & Concorde were eye wateringly expensive to operate with limited capacity.
it just feels like it. What we lost in sheer speed, we made up for in sheer efficiency. Those old wonderful dinosaurs were cool but they were stupidly inefficient and expensive. Transportation is a fine balance of cost, capacity and speed.
@@jdo1014 Meanwhile the trolleys are just an unfortunate loss.
I couldn't agree more! You can't describe the breathtaking power of those 4 gigantic engines and props, especially as you stood there on the tarmac and it roared out of the sea and up the ramp, i was deeply saddened when Hoverspeed went out of business. Now you are stuck on a huge, slow, noisy floating Macdonalds with wall-to-wall video's, the crossing now takes nearly 3 hours instead of the 30 mins by Hovercraft, and that includes boarding and disembarking. Pfff...
I did a Channel crossing 50 years ago in one of those. Boulogne to Dover. I found it novel, but noisy, and the windows were covered with salt spray so there was no view to speak of. I also took a hydrofoil ferry to Block Island in Rhode Island a few years later, and that experience was better for me. I think the modern fast-catamaran ferries are a decent compromise.
This channel is one of the few I try to watch on a TV rather than my phone. This is not an upload, it's an event for me. Thank you so much for such inspiring topics.
Thanks for the kind words :)
I always wondered what’d happen if someone picked up old ideas with new tech. Imagine a nuclear/electric large scale hovercraft! That’d be so cool!
If fuel cost and fuel consumption was the biggest nail in the hovercraft's coffin, that was my first thought, for a nuclear/electric version which currently powers submarines and aircraft carriers.
Oh shoot, just don't mention this to Elon....::) he will sell it to the gubmint for billions and deliver nothing, having done zero research on the matter. I once by accident dropped an oil-rag into the vertical blade of a small 2-man hovercraft, that broke the prop and wound the rag into something like a kevlar layer, took me ages to remove it.
Give elong a few billion and he will make one. he is a master huckster.
@@chrisgraham2904 high fuel consumption = high energy consumption = will also be a problem for an electric version (its just not economic, people would have to overpay for the experience, 99% of the passengers however just want to get from A to B)
Hybrid Air Vehicles
I always think it's interesting how something can be so cutting edge, so unique, and be viable in the 1960's as mainstream transportation yet here we are today in 2022 and I've never seen a hovercraft. It's almost like a parallel universe where hovercrafts never existed. We have ferries, and they move as slowly today as described in this video nearly a century ago, but it's as though the hovercraft was never invented at all. (At least to people in my generation.)
Huge costs to run those big ones. When duty free liquer ended that killed them .
You were born in an era where the world stopped using imagination and innovation for travel. And instead focuses completely on cost effectiveness. Because that makes more $$$.
The only thing that comes close to 1960s level imagination for public transport presently would be SpaceX.
Don't fix what ain't broke.
@@SuperCatacata Agreed. Even if hovercrafts cost more to fuel and maintain, one would expect the technology to evolve and improve to reduce those limitations. Perhaps to the point where it would exist as a high-end alternative for rapid water transport.
Just as we have private jets and limos to take people around at greater expense, I'm surprised the hovercraft can't make it as a high-end form of fast water-based travel for business people. Imagine being able to get from one side of town to the other in minutes rather than trying to fumble around changing busses, trains, etc. simply by using available waterways like large rivers or coastlines. Cities like New York, San Francisco, Miami, Chicago, etc... seem ideally suited to this sort of thing.
@@taekwondotime this is a similar story with the hydrofoil up until the 1970s. The main benefit behind of it is that at high speeds the foils lift the hull up, reducing water resistance and allowing for very high top speeds on water. You can see hydrofoils in action in the James Bond movies Thunderball as Emilio largo’s yacht, and The Man with the golden gun when bond takes a ferry from Hong Kong to Macau, passing by the capsized RMS Queen Elizabeth.
However hydrofoils were relatively expensive and complex to operate which means the only new hydrofoils you see nowadays are naval corvettes.
As for commercial hydrofoils still in use for passengers, the most well known civilian use of them is by the Hong Kong based ferry company TurboJet, which still operates 40+ year old Boeing 929 Jetfoils on their less trafficked routes but are slowly phasing them out.
My father was born at the right time to travel cheaply in Europe and see a few things that were gone before I was out of my teens myself. Communist Poland and the cross channel hovercraft were definitely the two highlights.
Though while he had a few stories from travel through England, France and Poland, all he could report on the hovercraft was that it was very smooth, but the view out of the window was almost entirely obscured by spray.
I was part of a filming crew in the early 80’s for the arrival of one of these big ones at Calais for a fiction. Extremely impressive, to say the least, but very, very, very noisy. And even more problematic to a filming crew, this things were displacing gigantic sprays of salted water and sand, none of which is going well with any type of precision technical gear. One of these sand grains ended up inside the camera and ruined the shot by scraping the film. No electronic surgery available at the time. So the crew had to go back to Calais to shoot it again. And it was ruined again! But what magnificent machines these were! Very well worth the sighting,… and the ruined shots.
That's an awesome and funny story - Thanks for sharing!
I was going through some slides the other day and found some from when my mother visited England in 1982. She had left as a 10 pound pom in 1954 and this was her only tip back there. Several of the slides were of a red hovercraft. I was amazed to see it. Unfortunately she died 13 years ago so I never had the chance to ask her about it.
There’s still a hovercraft operating between Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight. I saw it for the first time last year (unfortunately didn’t have time to take a passage), but it was super impressive to see it just come straight up the beach like nothing!
Yeah, been on that to the Isle Of Wight.
It’s a popular commuter route, although when the weathers bad they end up on the wightlink catamaran. Went on it a few times as a kid, and it’s noisy, although the newer models are probably better. It’s just the bad weather thing that puts me off now as it gets cancelled and you end up on a big detour. Always wanted to go on the big one, but my dad saw the one that flipped in the Solent shortly after I was born and he stopped liking them. You can visit one of the big ones in a museum in gosport, Hants
I know been on it
just come off it a few hours ago lol
Was just going to mention it. I’m an hour down the coast, probably one of the only comercial hovercraft crossings left now
This level of editing is just impeccable.
I grew up in a small village several miles from Dover, where the giant hovercraft ran daily to Calais. They were LOUD! You could hear them starting up from inside our house - a drone-like roar. They were also notorious for making people sick. They were known locally as the 'vomit comets'.
As one who gets sea sick in the bath, the trips I had in the SRN4 were butter smooth. Surely you mean the catamaran ferries when they first started?
@@nickbea3443 You got lucky! The slightest bit of rough weather and they were far from smooth...
Er yes. The SeaCat were vomit comets. Not the hovercraft. They didn't have the reputation for making people sick. I think the difference is that the hovercraft motion was more akin to aircraft turbulence. Bumpy, not wavy. The SeaCat would corkscrew, a highly unpleasant motion.
I was very lucky to ride the hovercraft both ways across the Channel in 1977. It was a thrilling ride for a 13 year old and even my parents looked like they were getting a thrill. We almost didn't make it back from France as there was a storm brewing and we were the last hovercraft across for several days. You could feel each three meter wave we hit as the hovercraft would slow down and then speed up again like a drunken sailor. It was brilliant! Still a thrill of my life all these years later. They were way ahead of their time.
Man, that must have been a great experience at that age, especially.
Thrilling yes but that would not be a comfortable ride at all.
@@reckz420 Oh no, it was totally comfortable. Fun too!
Man me being only 20 feels like I missed out on some of the most thrilling innovations to come and go.
@@DookieShooter704 Hang on, being only 20, you got years of thrills ahead, technology is outrunning us for sure, grab the gusto.
I never realized how small the hovercraft market really was! I'm American and was born in Belgium in 1977. My family always took the hovercraft to England to visit friends and family. I used to assume the hovercraft was as popular worldwide as a plane or train. Good video. Thanks!
In the 1980s my parents and I regularly travelled on these giant Hovercrafts between UK and FR. As a kid it was like going into a spaceship. You’d get the cool rise of the craft and slow crawl into the sea, then then it would really pick up speed and you’d arrive in no time. Services used to be canceled if the seas were rough, but on one occasion it was rough part way and I have never vomited more in my life !!
Yeah I've traveled on these like three times going to France in the early 90s and I was on one of the last runs in like, I think 1999 or 2000.
The level of quality put into these videos is insane! I'm always happy to see the notification that a new video has come out.
Hovercraft were phased out before my time and before I had ever been to the UK. I learnt about them a few years ago and from someone who had never seen or heard about them before in real life, they seem like pure science fiction! A giant semi-flying craft which could travel faster than cars on the highway and many small planes, with carrying capacity over a hundred tons. Incredible machines and a shame that they didn't find a way to make them more economically viable - it does appear that they still had room to scale up and become even more efficient! Hopefully they come back some day.
The worlds last scheduled Hovercraft service runs between Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight. They offer cheap fares if you just want a joyride and come straight back without disembarking.
Why hasn't anyone considered incorporating a few sets of hydrofoil mechanisms into it? The mechanism retracts when leaving or landing, but pops up when traveling at sea, providing additional physical support rather than a pure air cushion. It also provides more stability with less wobble for a more comfortable trip.
@@iqbang9236 The big fast catamaran ferrries invented by Incat in 1990 (and improved a lot since) efectively put both hovercraft and hydrofoils out of business. They use far less fuel, offer a more stable ride and operate at about the same speed. That's why today there are two big shipyards specialising in fast cat ferries over 100 metres long and none building commercial hydrofoils or hovercraft. :(
@@Dave_Sisson Catamarans are not a new invention, thanks to Pacific Islanders. The problem with a catamaran is its weight sensitivity and high sea restrictions. Use as a ferry of course limits its downsides.
A hovercraft with a hydrofoil mechanism still has an advantage in mid-coast transportation, it's just waiting for someone to take their first bite.
@@iqbang9236 I think I would have heard of it if Polynesian islanders had built 1,000 passenger catamarans powered by water jets. But it's possible that their invention of this technology escaped my attention.
Another aspect of hover crafts is almost no wake.
My first introduction to hovercraft was about 1971 as a boy fishing with my stepdad off the coast of Point Roberts (NW corner of the US/ SW corner of Canada).
We were in a small (16ft) motor boat and this quite large (relative to us) boat came way too close to us for its size and was traveling at speed. We were hanging on expecting to get really thrown around / maybe capsized by the wake. And then... no wake. Weird.
I later learned that was a new (at the time) hovercraft the military was testing. I also wonder if they were messing with us or just didn't take into account the average civilian at the time may not have known what they were 'driving'.
I was "lucky" enough to ride on the cross channel hover craft in the 1990s just before the service shutdown, it made me seasick and my head rang during and for hour or more after the crossing, but was still very cool way to travel and a great memory from my childhood
Same for me in the 80s. Calais - Dover in a quick Way. Much better than the slow Ferry. Seasickness was much worse on those slow Ferrys especially in heavy weather and machine trouble.
@@rainerbehrendt9330 good point about seasickness being worse on the ferries, might why I like tunnel much more :) and why no more hovercraft
@Ray Merlin Sorry, but that was 40 Years ago in my Twentys. My memory about this time is a little bit fragmented. We had a lot of beverages in our cars for our guest family. A german Weizen is always welcome ;-)
@Ray Merlin Sure I will be happy to, I hope it helps. It's was just after euro tunnel had opened summer 1994 as remember my mum sister wanted travel on that and myself and dad wanted use the hover craft.
Something had broken on the hover craft and we were nearly hour late boarding (so mustard is right they were unreliable) the waiting area was like small airports departure lounge which I thought it was odd as you parked your car going with you on the top of ramp hovercaft was waiting on.
I do not remember much about loading the car but was through central door at front, then you ushered into one on rooms ran down each side of the craft those areas reminded me of inside of 747 and you were expected stay seat for most journey unlike ferries on same route which more floating shopping centers at that time.
The journey was choppy which explains sea sickness and I had hoped you could see the journey out windows but there was so much spray it was like being passenger in car in very bad storm you see nothing but water past the window, and being bounced all over place, we might just bad weather on our trip.
We came back few weeks later after our holiday in France but I really do not remember much detail about the return leg.
This ended up being rather long reply sorry :) but interesting much I remembered from that long ago.
@Ray Merlin choppy similar to bad air turbulence on plane, the noise came from engines that I remember, as they were turboprop engines like on commercial propeller passages planes, the noise was like standing near run way with turboprop plane taking off for 30 minute journey
I've travelled on both the SRN4 and Concorde. The hovercraft was fantastic because it was much quicker than a ferry. A bit bumpy but quick. The Channel Tunnel killed it. Another stunning British invention that was a commercial failure. For niche uses like military and quick passenger trips they are still unbeatable.
Lol, why would military use it when they have helicopters and jet boats? Those fuckers are so loud and hard to pilot the smaller they are. There is a reason no one uses them anymore. Same reason there is no hydrofoil boats anymore. Same thing with hypersonic public transport. You have to remember there is a whole back end logistics and maintenance that usually kills designs like this or makes them not fit for commercial use.
Only Japan and US military have them. US wastes so much on shit they never use I bet most of 74 they have are never used at all. Like how do you even deploy one across the world? In a huge ship. Really seems redundant for modern military use.
I live in NY but I grew up going to Nantucket MA during the summer. It’s about 25 miles or so off the coast of Cape Cod but a catamaran fast ferry takes almost an hour, and the car ferry takes almost 4. A hovercraft to make the trip between Hyannis and Nantucket or Hyannis and Martha’s Vineyard would be game changing.
@@EricHamm do your research. The Royal Marines operate hovercraft due to their speed and ability to operate on sea, land , marsh etc. The US still operates large hovercraft because they can get heavy vehicles onto a beach without needing a port
@@EricHamm Hovercraft are used by the military mostly for high-speed deployment of heavy systems like main battle tanks, artillery, and large formations of troops as well as logistical elements. In the military environment fuel economy is not a major consideration for these machines, nor is maintenance. Any modern military drinks fuel like water, and maintenance is performed by the troops themselves.
Mister Mustard, some kudos for you - your videos are a 10 out of 10. Your voice work is excellent, you seem to be a natural for voicing documentary-style videos - you have good pitch, intonation, and diction, while maintaining an easy, confident manner. The graphics and 3-D models are superb, your choice of music is great, the editing is excellent.
You've 100% found your niche. Well done.
A data point: I travelled on the hovercraft twice when I was younger. Both times, the departure was delayed due to mechanical problems.
It was a lot of fun though.
Being nearly sixty now I remember going on a school trip to France in 77 and going on the SRN.4, the one overriding thing I recall is the noise it made but it was an amazing experience. The only disappointment about the trip was that we had to get the ferry back as the return trip was canceled due to mechanical problems.
Great video, excellent presentation.
Loved the editing of this video. Thank you for showing archive footage and resisting the urge to add a load of annoying glitches/distortion video effects and loud static noises. Great work.
France built a hovering air train monorail back in the 70’s but cancelled it due to lack of operational efficiency. The TGV was the winning technology ultimately selected and given France’s vast nuclear energy grid, the required electricity is CO2 neutral.
Sometimes evolution wins over revolution.
Mustard actially has a vidéo on the Aérotrain, from 2018: th-cam.com/video/qUXEFj0t7Ek/w-d-xo.html
Aren't maglev trains like the Transrapid technically "tracked hovercraft" as they do float/hover over the rails (albeit just a few millimeters) and reach speeds of 500 km/h?
the way Mustard can make an entertaining video that i would never even think about i would watch is amazing to me
As an 11 year old kid, I had the pleasure of travelling on these amazing beasts while on vacation in Margate with my English stepfather. It was definitely a trip to remember. I’m lucky to have the privilege to have experienced a ride on one. The ride was noisy, fairly rough and dirty. I don’t know why they had windows because once you got going you couldn’t see out of them because of the spray and sand! It was still a cool way to cross the channel and that 11 year old kid has fond memories of that experience! Cheers, John now 59
Here in Brazil, the coast guard and military still use hovercraft, primarily as search and rescue craft. You seem them pretty often whenever there's news about the coast guard searching for castaways at sea.
Russia runs some huge ones as amphibious assault ships.
I had a few plastic model kits of these beasts that I built during the early 70s; I still remember how detailed and cool they were. Looking at the drawings in this video brought the insides of these kits back to mind - they came with little trucks and cars for the ferry deck, and meticulously gluing down the rows of seats in the passenger section was a time-consuming effort...
In February 1978 I picked up a new Citroen CX PRESTIGE, drive from Paris to Dieppe in foul weather. Took the morning hovercraft to Newhaven.
Just over one hour's flight.
I mentioned to a crew member that I was straight from Australia and the car was one day old.
10 minutes later I was invited to join the Captain in the cockpit. A fabulous view set high up at the front. Propellors on pylons whirring away.
30 minutes later I came down to find my car had been washed and chamoisied compliments of the Captain.
Such an exciting way to arrive for a year working in the UK.
Equally exciting was leaving the UK in July 1979 by Concorde for New York.
Little did I expect that both flying fabulous machines would disappear with high operating costs..
I feel very privileged now that I am nearly 70.
Ha! Yes. I agree! I've done both too. Flown in an SR.N4 and on Concorde. Both frequently visit my dreams, and I mourn their demise equally.
This another one of those “I want this back with modern day technology, NOW!”
“Should we design a aircraft or a boat?”
*“Both, both is good”*
-Hovercraft engineer, probably
I'd describe hovercrafts as half helicopter half boat but aircraft can describe helis , so that's fair
Aircraft + boat = Ekranoplane?
Flying boat
@@toddkes5890 erkanoplan swaps the blower to create the air cushion with the wing. Helicopter is to hovercraft as normal airplane is to erkanoplan.
@@shaider1982 That is why I was comparing it to "Captain_Commenter's" 'aircraft or boat' question
Ha ha ha! This takes me back! My dad used to love hovercraft, we used to make them out of bits and pieces around the house, he got me a radio controlled hovercraft and we even went on that huge hovercraft to Calais! I had a window seat and it was very dark and foggy outside. Thanks for that bit of nostalgia!
Saunders Roe truly put out some of the most amazing engineering marvels that I've ever seen.
They were truly innovators, maybe not efficient, but they were innovators of the industry.
Mustard always manages to select fascinating vehicles.
As a kid, I lived in Calais in the 80s, and I had the chance to see them some time to time, and I was always captivated seeing them rise up, their skirt inflating, then slowly turning toward the sea, leaving the beach, floating above the sea.
I felt sad when they announced they will no longer operate and even if I couldn't really understand why at the time, it felt obvious their popularity was fading (as a child / pre-teen, I didn't know the economics of it, but the lack of passenger was pretty eveident in the lat 80s- early 90s), and the intense price competition imposed by the ferry lines certainly didn't help. It's hard to compete against travel prices for foot passenger around 10 Francs (~1 $ at the time or
Just one small thing about the hovercraft, in Britain, there are still two operating between the Isle of Wight and Portsmouth, and those machines always amaze me when I'm on a ferry and they shoot past and get across on only 10 mins. Shame they were pulled before they reached their potential. Good video as always
The thing is, they *did* reach their potential. It's stupidly inefficient to blow a ton of air down through a fragile skirt to float above the water when you could just... float in the water for "free". The only scenario these things make sense is essentially amphibious assault or cargo delivery over undeveloped watery terrain (like some places in Alaska).
@@JMurph2015 Have they? Modern computation, modern engines and modern simulation weren't in the 1960's.
I live in kirkcaldy where we are hoping to start a new hovercraft service
I travelled once with the giant Hovercraft across The Chanel. It was an amazing experience.
To be honest, It must be noisy, bumpy, wobbly, nothing to see through the foggy windows, but exciting, right?
@@iqbang9236 Yes, that is exactly how I remember. My father said: " we do not have to worry as long as the crew is not looking worried!"
I remember seeing a hovercraft depicted in the Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown special when I was a kid and being immediately curious about what that weird looking thing was. Still fascinated by them today.
I'm so thankful to have been able to make the Dover to Calais crossing on one of these behemoths several times in my youth. These machines absolutely mesmerized me.
I bet it was a cool experience!
I am glad I went to the top of the World Trade Center in the 1980's.
Same kind of feeling and longing for the past IMO.
@@jstravelers4094 Take every opportunity to try everything you can, same it was an amazing experience travelling on the hovercraft.
This is literally professional Natural Geographic level content. Its so well done and the way it is explained actually makes something even more interesting, than it already is.
Keep going and thank you for letting my day end in a little more interested about this topic
I was on one of these when it went very badly. Sent out in seas that the hovercraft was NEVER made for. I have never been so scared, people injured, people screaming. Damn that was so long ago and I still remember it all.
But it didn’t sink unlike some of the ships. Try being stuck on a ferry for hours unable to get into port.
I worked on the refits in 1997 and it was fantastic. I lived across from the Hoverport on my boat in Dover Marina. I still have two folding stewardess seats that were taken out during that refit on my boat. On sea trials, unloaded even after 30 years and with many many layers of paint, it could do 107mph unloaded.
Hoverspeed were trying to replace the Hovercraft with the sea cat, or as we called it, the Spew Cat. It was just no match as the turn around time on the Hovecraft meant that the bootleggers buying Duty Free whisky and cigarettes could make 5 return trips a day. As the bootleggers were living in the car park at Dover and were bootlegging between return trips to the north of the UK every two weeks to collect unemployment money, they wanted to fit in as many trips as they could.
Yeah they were the days … one day I managed a ferry crossing a sea cat and a hovercraft ….The only time I ever felt sea sick was on the sea cat which was strange because it was far rougher sea earlier in the day . It was a hard job but someone had to do it 😂
I also did the re-fits in 98 and the final one in 99. Bloody cold on that ramp wasn't it lol. Thankfully I only had to spend a month on the roof. The rest of my time was spent either on the car deck or in the boyancy tanks. The tanks are not a place to be if you have claustrophobia.
@@just-another-guy ah I remember those tanks. A guy I was working with insisted that we did not need the headsets to do up the bolts on the deck panels. So he went down into the tanks and I held the screwdriver up above trying to guess which bolts he would do. I struggled for about half an hour to figure which he was on. I could hear a bit of banging from below. Anyway turns out he had a complete freak out and went ballistic in a rage as he would try to do up a nut and I would be on the wrong one. I went down later and nuts were everywhere! All the cardboard boxes were torn up. He would not talk to me for days as he thought I was messing him about.
But yes bad place to be for a claustrophobic. I was down there one day and the inspection light broke, that was interesting… The funny thing is that where I work now, health and safety people make a big fuss about confined spaces and seem to consider anything to be confined. I think they would go bananas if they saw those tanks.
@@SailingSVPipedream hahaha that's funny dude. Not easy to do the deck withough headsets lol. We once had a guy turn up to do the roof skins with us. "Loads of air frame fitting experience." Started trying to take the skins off with a hammer and chisel. I think he lasted about an hour there. We also had a kiddy who used to go into the tanks and make himself a nice mouse nest out of the cardboard. He would sleep in there for hours lol.
Yeah health and safety wouldn't fly on that job. You just got on with it and got it done.
What a racket!!
Mustard always making high quality videos and at a pretty frequent once every 2 months
Used the hoverspeed service to France in 1986. I was only 9 years old but I remember the sensation as the craft lifted and edged to the water very vividly. It felt soooooo fast when we were out on the water. Years later I was lucky enough to pilot a hovercraft on the Solent as part of a corporate team building day. Lots of fun seamlessly flying across the water and over sandbanks but you REALLY had to think ahead.
I must have been less than 10 years old when I crossed for the first and only time the English Channel in a hovercraft. I still have a vivid memory of this incredible experience. I mostly remember the noise but also the hovering motion as soon as the skirt was inflated and the hovercraft lifted itself off the ground turning on itself effortlessly. In a way it almost felt like a helicopter ride without gaining altitude. The crossing itself was quite confortable (if you leave aside the noise and vibrations) as we were literally flying above the water. We would occasionally feel a soft bump when a bigger wave crossed our path but it was really gentle.
Our family took the cross-channel hovercraft a couple of times when I was a kid. It was cool, but even a mild wind made it a seriously bumpy ride
That was my memory of my trip across the channel back as a kid it was seriously bumpy and generally pretty uncomfortable lots of molded plastic!!!
I remember, as a child, crossing from Dover to Calais on a HoverLloyd hovercraft. I was as sick as a dog from all the bouncing across the waves.
I lived near Dover and Margate. Several of my mentors worked on early hovercraft development. You failed to properly mention the primary reason they failed. As they were a non displacement craft and were airborne the certification and maintenance was as an aircraft not a ship. Roughly 4 times the cost per PAX (passenger mile). The last passenger hovercraft service was still operating a couple of years ago to the Isle of Wight off the Solent
The Isle of Wight hovercraft service is still in operation between Sothsea and Ryde.
@Karl with a K They are bringing in third world people to help with this aim.......😀
@Karl with a K much better than the u.s. who do not have universal health care and have lost every war since ww2
One trip we went on to France was in bad weather and the pilot gleefully told us we were on the edge of operational limits! It was a very rough trip and people were throwing up around us in to sick bags left right and centre. The return trip was a bit smoother. It seemed apparent that this was more of a fair weather travel system than any traditional ship. It was great to have had an experience of this system. Luckily we were not sick but just a touch anxious as it did seem not really designed for everything the Channel could throw at a vessel.
@Michael D, have you ever been on a rough channel crossing by ferry? Much worse than the hovercraft, and people are sick even on a slightly rough crossing. I was on a force 10 gale crossing from Calais to Dover, 4 hours..... ok, we were held waiting to enter Dover port, in st Margaret's bay.
I applaud the huge hovercraft and what it was capable of, they really were fantastic.👍👍✌🇬🇧
@@okgo8315 Difficult to see the comparison as the operating limit for a SRN4 was 40 knots mean speed which would be Force 8 I presume. My point was the vessels were not really up to everything the channel can give. Look at the damage report for the Princess Anne on 29th Feb, 2000. The erratic banging, lurching and crashing of the hovercraft and all just above sea level are unlike anything I have experienced on a ship in similar weather conditions. They were a marvellous idea at the time but they did not stand up to the test of the time. I am glad I travelled on one of the big ones.
I love the format of Mustard's videos. At the beginning of the video, you end up thinking, 'this tech sounds great, why didn't it catch on?', and then two thirds in you're like, 'oh... That's why...'
very formulaic yet enjoyable every time
i find that every mini documentary TH-camr i like has this quality
@@nerd2544 Mustard's done successes too.. TGV, F-15, Bullet Train were all successes. But I find failures way more interesting
@@ChrisConronreal
I never actually rode on the hovercraft, but I remember one day we sat on the cliffs at Dover overlooking the channel and watched the hovercraft crossing. It was only a couple of years before they were stopped. The main thing I remember, is how loud they were. You could literally hear when they set off from France, and then all across the water until they landed. People living in the houses nearby must have been glad when they were cancelled.
Your animations and documentary style are fascinating, helps you almost re live the vehicles of the past, love it, keep up the great content.
This channel should be a documentary with different episodes talking about different topics
Great topic. In early 2010's I met a community that was rebuilding them and looking for lots of engineering help to donate. They were hype on the hovercrafts.
I believe hovercraft can be utilised and improved greatly, they could be incredibly useful. if you consider the limits.
The Marines still have hovercraft for amphibious landing
Larger, modern materials, electric motors and nuclear power baby!! 🙂
they are so efficient the competition killed them before they had a chance
All it takes is time and money.
i love Mustard because i love the videos, so what we don't get a video every week, but a. good video every 2 months, I love his videos because I learn about vehicles I never even knew existed before and its amazing.
I was fortunate enough to travel on a hovercraft as a child in the early 90's I can't remember much about the experience, except for the sound. It was really quite unusual, like 100 helicopters taking off at once close by. Watching this makes me sad I wasn't a little older, as it's not something I'll get to do again. Just never realised it at the time.
in 1998 I took the hovercraft from Amsterdam to London. I was able to watch a movie in the theater. It was pretty fun.
Finally a new video! Great work as usual, keep it up! Some suggestions for future videos: Airbus A380 and F-22 Raptor and perhaps one on Titanic and its sisterships.
Yes to all of these, I would love to hear him mention how the Olympic rammed and sunk a German submersible
I remember traveling to the Isle of Wight on one as a kid. Scary seeing a big air blowing beast come out of the water up onto land effortlessly. Back when Britain were at the forefront of ingenuity.
That hovercraft route is still operational! Love going to portsmouth and see it just drive straight up the beach.
I also in my primary school trip
I was fortunate enough to travel on one of these in the late 80s. It just felt so special.
Somehow I wasn't subscribed and missed a lot of Mustard uploads ... now I have to Ketchup - but I Relish the experience to come.
I made a couple of trips as kid on the SRN4, visiting relatives in the UK. While very impressive to watch the beast approaching from sea and then effortlessly landing on tarmac, kicking up water, sand and dust and making a beautiful low droning noise, the flight itself was anything but. Very bumpy and shaky, I also remember the interior being surprisingly unkempt (mid 1990s).
I took the hovercraft from Calais to Dover in the early 70’s .
They were going to cancel the flight due to weather but decided to proceed anyway. At mid way the swell was pretty high…. Amongst the guests were a large group of persons with disabilities. The lady beside me could not control her movements and started to look a quite palish but fortunately at the right time I was able to reach her face with the baggies provided in the back seat pocket , Puke , Puke.
Well once the smell of it propagated the area they were general contamination and to my knowledge the most Vomit ever Experienced by myself and most likely crew. I’ll never forget the height and effect of that Channel swell !😝
Thanks for making this video! I've been low-key wondering about why hovercraft aren't a typical thing for years.
I so wish we still had them, they look so cool
There are still hover crafts. Small public ones.
@@Worthcurve52 I know, I'm meaning the SRN 4's going across the channel
We travelled many times on Hovercraft. Still the best way to cross the Channel.
I travelled on one of those huge hovercraft back and forth from England to France during the 1970s. I remember being disappointed (I was 7-9 years old at the time) that I couldn’t see us actually floating on air and only saw the “skirt”. Also, the noise and mist generated each time was tremendous. I also remember my father loading up the car inside and it had to be locked down in special braces for the wheels so the car wouldn’t roll around. All in all though, it was a pretty cool experience each time. But yeah, it was a completely 1970s thing I guess. 😃
We went to France on one and came back in the ferry. They were amazing things and the one we travelled on was I think called the Princess Anne.
My wife and I went over on
the P. Anne too. In '79. Krazy kool
I got to cross the channel on one in the 1990s, it was so exciting.
Was it noisy on the inside?
I only ever watched cars go on and then watched it leave. The noise was crazy. 😮
Always enjoyed watching military hovercraft operating near Virginia Beach, Virginia, in 1980s. They are fascinating machines.
I’ve always found giant hovercraft very interesting. Happy to see you made a video on them!
I met a hovercraft pilot when I was a kid in the 90's and I've had a fascination with them since. They're so cool to watch transfer into different terrains at wild speeds. This video just reminded me that I still need to buy a small one to check off a long standing bucket list item.
You can still catch a hovercraft from Southsea beach, Portsmouth to (and from) the Isle of Wight.
The Channel hovercraft was taken out of service years ago though, unfortunately. The 3 million pound cost of the skirts was a factor
Came here to say this! Unfortunately those are just small passenger hovercraft. But they're still incredibly cool. (Also technically they run from Southsea, not Portsmouth! It's the ferries that go from Portsmouth.)
Hovertravel who operate them also sometimes run excursions out to Lee-on-Solent where the Hovercraft Museum is. There you can see the last civilian giant hovercraft and hear the tragic story of how they were utterly failed to be preserved in anything that could remotely be returned into working order.
Yep I travel on them every year for a few days on the Isle of Wight. Still just as exciting even after all these years :)
@@Muzer0 Well, I mean, Southsea is in Portsmouth mate. I know that, it's my home city.
@@BongoBaggins Ah, fair enough, honestly didn't realise that. Thought it was one of those cases where it was two places right next to each other but separate, like Poole and Bournemouth (at least until the recent council unification). Happy to be corrected :). According to Wikipedia they've not been separate places since 1904!
@@Muzer0 No problem bud! I wasn't angry or anything, it's difficult to convey nuance in a TH-cam comment 😁
Finally! I've waited sooo long for this video. Love the videos, keep them up!
Mustard is like a vehicular lemmino…. Amazing work!
There is an amazing collection of hovercraft at the Hovercraft Museum at HMS Daedalus near Portsmouth, and I visited with my son just over a decade ago. We were the only people there (you actually have to phone in advance to get them to let you in). We saw some really interesting vehicles including some that were used in Bond movies, one that used to belong to the Queen, and I have a photo of my son sitting in the cockpit of an SR.N4! Very interesting place, and well worth a visit if you can arrange it.
Also the world's last hovercraft service still operates there.
I crossed the English Channel in the hovercraft in a stormy day in August 1992, it was a unique and an amazing experience, those impressive 4 proppellers, hughe and powerful turbines, great speed a lot of cars and people.
I travelled on one of those giant hovercrafts from Dover to Calais before it all shut down. They felt incredibly cool and Sci fi in the 90s and it's a shame that like the concord they didn't last.
In the early 90s my wife and I had a crossing booked from Dover to Calais. We were running very late and raced by road hoping to catch the craft. We arrived just as it was about to leave and for some reason, we were waved straight into the craft and drove inside, the tailgate was shut and it left immediately. The crossing only took just under half an hour and as soon as it landed in France, the front door was opened and we were let off first! In 1994 we took the earliest rides on the channel tunnel train. this was nowhere near as quick as the loading and queuing process was longwinded. In contrast, the hovercraft service had loaded and unloaded its relatively small number of cars very quickly. So on that day, we drove from a road in England to a road in France in 30 minutes, something unthinkable and impossible today on public transport.
Wonder if someone would be able to take one of those crafts and make it more cost efficient today.
@@YogurtSnipe i'm... quite suspicious. In video it's marked "gas turbines", not "aircraft kerosine".
So I guess that main issue is a lobby.
2 seconds in this is already the most interesting thing I've seen in weeks it seems.
A new Mustard video and mom just dropped by and left me a Tupperware full of her Arroz con Pollo!! This is my life!! I’m feeling lucky and loved!!! ✌🏽
Arroz con Pollo looks delicious
Everything about these things seems insane, and I love it
I drive past one of these SRN4s on a regular basis, sat there looking awesome!
I used to live next door to the Airfield that it is sat on.
I do remember when there were two of them sat there, sadly not anymore.
Although very nearby is a commercial hovercraft service that is still operational and I have been on it quite a few times, from Southsea to the Isle Of Wight.
Great video, thank you!
What airfield is this?
@@jackparkin8237 Lee on Solent.
The former HMS Daedalus.
The museum is seriously underappreciated. They had to sell one SRN4 to be scrapped a few years ago and desperately need visitors, so please go see it if you're in the area.
The track hovercraft really makes sense. It could be more efficient and more cost effective than the mag lift system.
I rode the hovercraft across the English Channel from Dover in 1994 as a kid. I had seen it in cartoon form on a "Charlie Brown" movie, when the Peanuts followed the same route, some years earlier, and I was excited to finally ride it. While I don't remember a lot of it, I still remember being surprised at how much it was like riding in an airplane, except with the safety training focusing on life vests, with no mention of oxygen masks. I remember getting up from my seat to go look out at the sea as we went. I also remember being a bit disappointed that it was SO much like being a passenger on an airplane, as I'd done that so many times before across the US!
Man, I hadn't thought about that in YEARS! I'm sad to hear that they no longer run at all, but I suppose I'm not surprised. After all, I made a similar trip with friends in 2008, and we traveled by train via the "Chunnel". Really, while riding in a tunnel under the sea was a little creepy, the comfort of the train was much higher than the hovercraft, I think. Nonetheless, hovercrafts do still seem almost magical.