Length: 15 ft 3 in
Width: 8 ft 2½ in
Height: 4 ft 7 in
Weight: 1,100 pounds
(Mk 3: 1,200 pounds)

Vertical obstacle clearance: 9 in

Power: Mk 1 - 3 Velocette Viceroy air cooled 2-stroke 10 BHP
Mk 3 - 3 Sachs Wankel air cooled rotary 21 BHP (1 engine used for lift, 2 for thrust)

Maximum speed:
Over land: Mk 1/2 25mph; Mk 3 45mph
Over water: Mk 1/2 25mph; Mk 3 35mph

Payload: 2 persons / 400 pounds Fully amphibious

This was the first light hovercraft to go into mass production and 120 were built.
The collection includes the first Mark 1, a Mark 2 and the last Mark 3. Hover Air
Limited was founded by Lord and Lady Brassey of Apethorpe who were pioneers
of light hovercraft and Lord Brassey became the first President of the Hover Club
of Great Britain, an organization that has inspired the production of many
lightweight hovercraft.

The craft was designed for private, commercial and agricultural use and was
supplied around the world to many countries, including Sarawak, Sweden,
Mexico, South Africa, Zambia, USA, Canada, Kenya, East Germany, Holland,
Singapore and South America. It played a leading role in the 1969 White Nile
expedition.

001 was built for evaluation purposes and, although used for demonstration,
there were only 3 Mark 1 craft built. The Mark 2 craft had more or less the same
body and engineering but the skirt design was improved and the Mark 2 example
in the collection was used by the fire service for flood rescue. Mark 3 commenced
at 068 and was a much faster craft due to the Wankel engines.
 

    This was the first hovercraft to use a molded Class Reinforced Plastic hull

    The bag skirt was simple and more stable than those developed for larger
    craft

    The Mark 1 and Mark 2 versions used standard motor cycle engines,
    reducing the production costs and making the craft available at an affordable
    price.

    It was the fastest light hovercraft of it's era.

    Control was achieved by use of the rudders or by differential throttle making
    it very maneuverable, provided all three engines were working.

    The craft was small enough and light enough to be towed on a trailer by a car
    and stored in a garage.

    The hydraulic swing over steering made it possible to steer from either side
    of the craft.

    This was the only small craft of this type to have a covered control cabin.

    Skirt development started with a simple pop riveted, bag skirt made from a
    type of rubberized canvas dinghy material which proved to have too much
    friction. Hover Air then went on to use Hypolon, a Dunlop material with a
    nylon weave coating which proved more successful but did not do well on
    wet sand. The later skirts were made from neoprene coated nylon with
    welded seams; this material was excellent on water but built up a large
    amount of static electricity when operated over wet or long grass. The
    existing larger craft, operating only on water, did not have the same
    problems as the lightweight hovercraft, which were aiming to traverse any
    reasonably flat terrain and the Hover Hawks attempted to overcome a lot of
    new developmental problems.

Owned by the Sultan of Oman and obtained for the Museum by Trustee Mike
Pinder

SR.N4 Mk II Mountbatten Class
Designer / Manufacturer: Saunders Roe
Rolled out at East Cowes: 10 December 1968
First commercial service: 2 April 1969
Converted to Mk II craft: 1972/73
 
 

Swift was built in 1968 as the second Mk I SR.N4, with a capacity for 254
passengers and 30 vehicles, and commenced trials at Pegwell Bay on 17th
January 1969. It began service in April with Hoverlloyd Ltd on the Pegwell Bay
(Ramsgate) to Calais route. The car deck occupies the large central area with
large stern doors and a bow ramp to provide a drive-on, drive-off facility. The
passenger cabins are situated along either side and have separate side doors for
embarkation and disembarkation. The control cabin is sited centrally and forward
on top of the superstructure with access for the three man crew via a ladder from
the vehicle deck.

Swift reached speeds of up to 100 knots on trials, but the operating maximum was
limited to 70 knots. Swift gained the record for crossing the English Channel,
which it managed to do in 24 minutes and this record was retained for many
years until Mk III craft The Princess Anne snatched the record with an incredible
22 minutes on 14th September 1995. During it's working life, Swift made over
30,000 separate Channel crossings.

In September 1972 Hoverlloyd began sending their three Mk I craft back to the
British Hovercraft Corporation at East Cowes for conversion to Mk II standard.
The two inner cabins on the car deck level were removed to provide an additional
7 car spaces and the passenger cabins were extended out to the periphery to
make up for the lost space and to provide an additional 28 seats. The additional
weight only made a marginal difference to the performance. A tapered skirt was
fitted retrospectively to all SR.N4 craft as this was found to give a much better all
round performance, particularly in rough weather, and it also improved visibility
for passengers.

Swift was chartered to Seaspeed in early 1981 to cover one of their own craft off
service, and in October she was included in the merger of Seaspeed and
Hoverlloyd, subsequently operating under the name of Hoverspeed on the Dover /
Boulogne and Dover / Calais routes.

On 11th October 1991, Swift was laid up by Hoverspeed pending sale. The sale
never materialised, and on 25th June 1994 she was donated to the Hovercraft
Museum and towed from Dover to HMS Daedalus near Gosport. She is the last
remaining Mk II craft, the others having now been broken up for spares.

 

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