1993 The Princess Margaret hovercraft arrives at Calais

Flying into Calais February 1993. To get an idea of what it was like crank your volume knob up all the way!!!!

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• The
• Princess
• Margaret
• hovercraft
• calais
• hoverspeed
• hover
• craft
• speed

[nixcails]

pity yhey are not preserved in working order at the Hovercraft musuem they are amazing enginerring achievement. technically advanced and very ahead of there time.

RIP SRN4 Hovercraft.. they were STILL the fatest way across the channel even when the Tunnel opened

[bridgelangley]

they were very noisy and extremely uncomfortable. It was like taxiing down a potholed runway for 35 minutes. you could not hear or see a thing.wonderful to look at but thank goodness for the fantastic achievement of the channel tunnel. times move on

[radioianj]

I used to book on the hovercraft every year when driving to Europe; every year for 10 years until I was told in 2001 that they were finishing. I was shocked and felt terrible about another great British engineering machine being dumped. Travelling across on the Norfolk line ferry now is NOWHERE near the same. Adults and kids used to be excited when you could hear them approaching from a couple of miles out! I do miss them. Thank goodness we still have the Isle of Wight hovercraft crossing.

[myrnaloysboy]

oooooh Its Princess Margaret

[MegaBLANIE]

xDDD

[iStalkBoys]

I turned my volume up, and blew up my speakers. god damn it

[InfiniteMushroom]

@nixcails Even though your comment here is a year old, it's still a good one!

What the hell is with the U.K and its stupid disregard over its own great achievements? For the past 50 years, the U.K. has just let industry after industry fail and never honored its great men of science. Britain's weapons industry was famous for innovation and the royal parasites just allowed it to die or be sold off.

Gordon Brown, sold off the U.K's. gold at the bottom of the market and wasn't hanged for it. Damn...

[Pullisto]

@bridgelangley Times may move on, but not necessarily for the better, these are still ahead for speed/time than the tunnel, (22 min on a good day) and the rancid replacement catarmarans, which came replaced the hovercraft just due to someone with mind on larger profits over speed. Just like in 2003, you could get London - New York in under 3 hours on Concorde, now the fastest time is 8 hour plus on a friggn airbus. Speed is progress, so if times move on, it''s going backwards.

[pillollollo]

Ho viaggiato con la Princess Margaret nel 1996 e ne ho serbato un bellissimo ricordo. E' stato anche più emozionante che viaggiare con l'aereo. Peccato che non volino più...

[noumankhan333]

because if it exceeds particular speed limit, it may fly.

[haniboyx1]

it will go too fast and have no more balance.

Because it hasnt got any wings like airplanes

[Gig540]

Propellers have instant bite in the air allowing them to grab at any rpm. Also grabs a larger surface of air which makes it easier to maneuver. Like rowing a boat with a large wide faced paddle compared to a skinny paddle. The skinny paddle will go through the water faster but produce less thrust.