Great video, I travelled on a hoverlloyd when I was young, it was bad weather and returning to Ramsgate I remember going past the seaspeed that had got stuck on a sand bank, I think it was the year of the fastnet race disaster, due to bad weather. I have been to the hovercraft museum in Lee on solent several times I love it, the open day is amazing, last year I took family there and had a ride on the hovercraft that normally goes from Southsea to Ryde, but on the open day they do full speed 360° spins, and turn of the hover to show how it floats like a boat, high speed run up to the museum. So cool.

I remember being on a ferry from France in 1990 and watching a hovercraft leave about 20 minutes after us, catch us and overtake in about 10 minutes, then disappear into the distance.

The worst form of transport I’ve been on, never again will I get on a hover craft. Crossing the channel in bad weather in one of these has mentally scared me never have I thrown up so much then on one of these bloody things. Passengers were queuing you at the toilets the vomit was running out of the toilet and down the aisle.

Great video, thanks for sharing x

I've seen this layout at the Ally Palace show a few years ago. I asked where Mrs. Wilberforces's house was and the guy pointed to where it will go. It's a work of art, for sure!

I remember my grandparents going on this there was a picture of them standing in front of it. It was sometime in the late 1980s. They brought me a model of it as a present.

A nice video about these powerful brutes i remember hearing deltics as a kid flying through Ashton-under-Lyne station in the late 1970s as you can't mistake the sound's of those napier engine's growling as they're from the best era of 1960s English engineering 🥰

7 tons?🤔🤔 @2.36

Used to drink fuel

There was two David McKintyre's employed at Scottish Aviation. There is Wing Commander David F. McKintyre who flew over Mount Everest in 1933 & who created the Company Scottish Aviation and there was also a David McKintyre who designed both the Prestwick Pioneer & the Prestwick Twin Pioneer. I am surprised that the David McKintyre who designed these aircraft was not mentioned in this video

fantastic aeroplane love the annie. like the 19 written in letters avro nineteen. just so cool. the airliner version looks very modern i think with the individual cabin windows yet i do prefer the greenhouse side version military trainer. a classic. on a sad note i went to several anson plane crashes in the uk in the 80s. the plane climbed badly and when lost (remember at night with trainee navigators often in bad weather) they flew into mountains. the rate of climb would not let them escape the peak if quite low level and in they went. i remember one crash half way up a steep yet scenic peak in wales. rip the crews. a superb classic aeroplane. nothing like this in 2024 except well an avro anson... and to add the airliner version reminds me of my fave boeing plane the model 247.

Proper job, the king of diesel.🦘🇦🇺👍🏼

Remember taking one when the channel was very choppy. It had to travel at half speed (so the crossing time was the same as the ferry) and quickly became a ‘vomit comet’! Stuck in your seat with folk chundering in to their brown paper bags was less than pleasant. But most of the time, it was quick, efficient and part of the holiday adventure.

So good to see a "contemporary" professional doc about it before the service stopped. Went on them quite a few times in the 70s/80s, always fun as a kid

Nice project.

brings to mind meeting Dad (guard) off the night mail from scotland,and Riding no 1 to finsbury pk to sign him out, ps...FROM THE HARRY POTTER SITE

Scary thought: Elon 'Ego' Muskrat will see this and suddenly realise that HE invented the hovercraft in a dream several years ago, and gave it to the world. He'll release an all-electric stainless-steel Teslovercraft with autopilot within 18 months, with prices starting at just $499,999.95. Probably. Perhaps. Definitely. Maybe. Allegedly.🙄

A modern version of this should be built with fuel efficient engines to make it more economical to run. A great machine.

I recognized G-AIDL from it's appearance in Torchwood. Beautiful aircraft. I am currently making a video about the Family Tree for British Airways, and I noticed that the Dragon and the Dargon Rapide show up, a lot with all the early individual airlines, before they were merged into BOAC and BEA.

Good video, very instructive. I was a cadet with Shell in the mid 70s, on the bridge of a supertanker navigating very slowly down The Channel, at night, in thick fog. We all became aware, and somewhat alarmed, at a sudden crescendo of noise emanating out the fog from astern. Before we could think of what on Earth it could be this SRN4 hovercraft charged out of the fog in a great cloud of lit up spray, crossed very close behind us, and was swallowed back into the gloom as quickly as it had appeared. The Captain was not best pleased that the radar operator had failed to spot the hovercraft and warn him, but I think the rate at which the radar 'blip' was moving across the screen, compared to every other vessel, was so fast that it had been dismissed as a false return echo.

The Deltic holds the unofficial, unverified world diesel speed record. Did I get your attention ? 😀 This is all anecdotal of course. But seeing this video reminded me of a story from 40 years ago I had completely forgotten about. A story told by an old, long retired driver in my Dad's pub in Peterborough. My Dad believed him, he said he wasn't the kind of guy taken to BS-ing. Who knows for sure though. I'll tell what I can remember of the story he told in 1983. It (55020 Nimbus) hit 152.x mph (I forget the x now) running with seven carriages, on Stoke Bank at around 1:30am, on Thursday March 4th 1976 (I remember the date, because it's also my own birthday (different year though), driven by Jimmy Warner who was based out of Finsbury Park. It was Jimmy's final jaunt before retirement, and it was all set up with help of the boys at Finsbury Park and a couple of friendly local bobbies with speed guns positioned 1 mile apart. The traction motors had their governors removed, and the gearing was changed to make it possible (I may be misremembering the technical details, I was an 11 year old kid, and this was 40 years ago). They (the FP Depot) wanted to take the 1973 record for The Deltic, from the HST Prototype (143mph), which they didn't consider a "real" locomotive, and for 'Depot pride'. Mr Warner said the loco still had a little left in the tank after they hit the top speed, they just "ran out of track". He said Nimbus was always the "liveliest" of the Deltics. Once the record was taken, later on the loco was returned to standard spec and noone was ever any the wiser. Certainly not BR Management ! 🙂 There's no reason it COULDN'T happen. If a 2,250bhp HST cold hit 143, then a re-jigged Deltic could certainly power it's way through that mark. We'll never know of course. The only locos with a faster claimed speed than a HST are also totally unproven and uncorroborated.

Very noisy trip, like an out of control country bus! Exciting when sea is choppy, one crossing ripped its skirt but we limped on to France, miss it.

I will never forget the trips I took in the early sixties over the vale of York one of the first 100mph sretches.. The power and the exhaust note were memorable as was the rock and roll of Mk 1 stock! I think the two tone green BR Livery really looked great. Halcyon days.

I travelled on them a few times. Very quick but noisy and a bit bumpy. Gone now

British Cold War expedient. Looks as though English folks got a return on their investment. Glorious!

In the 80s, we once sailed on our small sailboat from Calais to Dover in pea-soup fog. These hovercrafts were The Best navigation aids as their tremendous noise !! helped us moving in the right direction. Always remember, always thankful.

Those car alarms on the deck remind me of a camping trip on Mull a few years ago. It was a foggy morning, and emerging from the mist was the serenade of car alarms as the morning ferry from Oban made its way into port. Every morning was like that.

"Loverly to this day.. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇬🇧💪

I've driven a full size tour coach in there, back in the 1980's, I think it could take two coaches one behind the other in the centre of the deck for balance ..

If they can be able to bring this specific giant hovercraft back to service even if its four times a year where tourists and enthusiasts book early in advance just to get the experience I'm sure it would be very successful, I wish the considered

Very interesting.

Was at Kinloss with the idea of Mr4. They sent up Trainee people straight out of college and as they had no clue what to do just took photographs so as they could copy previous builds .when they got home. FRA were paying us less than a quick fit Fitter. So our guy's were leaving at least one a week. The RAF panicked, and called a meeting so FRA had to increase our wages .But not enough. This was the end of the Nimrod at Kinloss.

really enjoyed this. . Was on the hovercraft from Dover to Calais back in the early 70,s ( a young 20,s something traveling for the first time.) From NZ .I remember quite a rough trip but loved it.

What is the purpose of playing the stupid noise you call music ?

What an incredible sight one of those things must've been under full power, blasting across the surface of the Channel. Fascinating video, and that cockpit tour is a study in contrasts - the almost 1940's-style controls for the pilots, and the (for the time) up to date computer-controlled radar system for the navigator. I would have loved to have seen one of these in service!

But what did you catch? I didn’t see any fishing tackle 🤭

Did several jumps from this fabulous aircraft when it was one of the regular jumpships of the Army Parachute Association based at their Netheravon drop zone in Wiltshire.

"Wasn't a place to come back to?" Sums up the stupidity of it all, really? If you've done it, the deterrence had failed.

Apocalyptic, desolate and, apart from my companion on the day, lonely was that bitterly cold day in January 82. At 14 years old we sneaked across the Pennines (having not been entirely upfront with our parents as to where we were going) to Donny. The poorly maintained chain link fence down the alley way to the left of the entrance gates was breached and after negotiating the odd piece of decaying rolling stock their stood, in the icy mist, the image seen in this video at 28:53 - indeed, this footage might well have been the same day! Perhaps one of those days most can relate to? Childhood memory that at the time was just another day. We made many journeys to York, Donny, London etc. having saved dinner money, washed cars and nipped to the shop for Mrs Haig at number 22. This day stands out most with the passage of time for many reasons. When one of the remaining mythical 'Beasts from the East' passes up the west coast on a heritage trip, thoughts return of my first trip to York, turning a corner and, for the first time, confronting the enormous mass of yellow howling away towards the north. Pinza was her name. As with the occasional Merlin passing over head I just watch, smile and, of course, listen! Then I go back to paying the bills.

To think it all started with the Halifax.

SAVE HER FROM THE SCRAPPY !...

The DH110 'prototype' had a wing-structure which couldn't take the stresses expected of it.

In 1968 I was on 60MU , travelling to RAF Shawbury ATC training centre,to repair a Vampire following a bird strike, 1st operational a/c I worked on , what a privilege.

I love travelling by ferry from Dover to Calais. Would have loved to travel on the hovercraft.

Concorde of the Seas.

I went on one of the first hovercraft which you could experience the frill of the hovercraft in the channel for 12 and six pence those were the days

I had no idea they were that bumpy. 🇦🇺

This is by far one of the best documentations about the famous SRN4 and the Hoverspeed Cross Channel Service I've seen so far. So sad that almost all SRN4 have been scrapped. There's only one left: The Princess Anne at the Hovercraft Museum in Lee-on-the-Solent.

A Factory in Preston, not Liverpool. Dick Kerr Works on Strand Rd

She is beautiful.