Wednesday, January 19, 2011

SR.N4 Hovercraft in Ramsgate (England)

The International Hoverport, Ramsgate (England)

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The SR.N4 hovercraft was a large passenger and vehicle carrying hovercraft built by the British Hovercraft Corporation.  Work on the SR.N4 began in 1965 and the first trials took place in early 1968.

The SR.N4 was the largest hovercraft built to that date, designed to carry 254 passengers in two cabins besides a four-lane automobile bay which held up to 30 cars. Cars were driven from a bow ramp just forward of the cockpit / wheelhouse. The first design was 40 metres (131 ft) long, weighed 190 long tons (193 t), and was capable of 83 knots (154 km/h).

The SR.N4s operated services across the English Channel between 1968 and 2000, until the completion of the Channel Tunnel made their service unprofitable.

2 comments:

Howard said...

I went on one of these when I was a child. Very fast and loud, but everyone was seasick!

BE19Pilot said...

These hovercraft are so cool! Wish I could have taken a trip on one of these...