hour rule

"pip bip - choose Corrour" (hhgttg69) 02/01/2020 at 06:21 • Filed to: hovercraft, hour rule

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British Hovercraft Corporation

facw > pip bip - choose Corrour 02/01/2020 at 07:01

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Reading Wikipedia, there is apparently now only one commercial passenger hovercraft ferry service in the world, serving the Isle of Wight:

Apparently other fast-ferry designs are more efficient, and cheap airfare, as well as the opening of the Chunnel, have reduced demand for fast ferries in general.

Apparently British Hovercraft Corporation somehow got into composites manufacturing and decided to do that instead of hovercraft, being renamed Westland Aerospace (they were already under Westland). Can’t tell from a quick look if they still exist, Westland became AgustaWestland, which was then fully integrated into Finmeccanica, which then became Leonardo.  

ttyymmnn > pip bip - choose Corrour 02/01/2020 at 09:51

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Those were super cool. But weren’t they also super loud?

Svend > pip bip - choose Corrour 02/01/2020 at 11:34

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There’s an episode of Salvage Hunters here in the U.K. where they visit the hovercraft museum. And the largest one there is that hovercraft you posted, and they’ve filled the car deck with loads of other smaller hovercraft while they sort the museum and petit reopened.

Some of the stuff they come across is fascinating.

Oh, and they even get the engines running on that hovercraft, lifting it up on it's skirts. 

Only Vespas... > ttyymmnn 02/01/2020 at 15:08

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The British do like loud and unconventional transpo.

pip bip - choose Corrour > ttyymmnn 02/01/2020 at 15:48

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Supposedly too loud 

pip bip - choose Corrour > Only Vespas... 02/01/2020 at 15:48

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Wtf is that?

ttyymmnn > pip bip - choose Corrour 02/01/2020 at 16:34

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Fairey Rotodyne

ttyymmnn > Only Vespas... 02/01/2020 at 16:35

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I’ll bet that sumbitch was loud too.

Only Vespas... > pip bip - choose Corrour 02/01/2020 at 17:02

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Oh, just something English that seemed like a good idea. Two turboprop engines pulling providing bleed compressed air to the rotor tips where it was mixed with fuel and ignited. It died due to post war [WWII] British politics, budget cuts, and one other thing:

From two miles away it would stop a conversation. I mean, the noise of those little jets on the tips of the rotor was just indescribable. So what have we got? The noisiest hovering vehicle the world has yet come up with and you’re going to stick it in the middle of a city?

That’s from John Farley, he knows about noisy. He was the chief test pilot on the Harrier Jump Jet, another unconventional and incredibly loud British transportation machine.