It's 60 years since the British inventor Christopher Cockerell demonstrated the principles of the hovercraft using a cat food tin and a vacuum cleaner. Great things were promised for this mode of transport, but it never really caught on. Why? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-34658386
I think the reason it never got off the ground (buh dum tiss) was because it is impracticle compared to ships and aircraft. It takes more and costs more to build and maintane one than it does to build and maintane a ferry, or a taxi
My hovercraft is full of eels in many languages http://www.omniglot.com/language/phrases/hovercraft.htm
From memory of crossing the channel in my early days of holidaying abroad they always felt a bit unstable. Brian
Only ever went on one once, back in summer of 1989 returning from a bicycle trip to the WW1 battlefields.
Whenever i went on one, it always broke down. The last time it took us 3hrs to cross the bloody Channel when the engine failed half way across! Rob
I never travelled on the cross-channel hovercraft but a friend of mine who did described the experience as like being in a Lancaster bomber at wave height. It seems to be a case of a brilliant invention that proved to be a technological dead end-there are more effective, convenient (and comfortable) vehicles which can achieve the same purpose. I seem to recall that in the communist era the Russians made a lot of use of military hovercraft-what happened to them?
The main disadvantage,I would think was that the hovercraft was incapable of completing against conventional craft...operating cost,weight carrying capacity,passenger capacity,unconventional berthing....list is not exhaustive. Where it does come into its own is when designed as an emergency vehicle as suited to low draught water courses,ie swamps and marshes. Sailed on the Hovercraft a couple of times,it was noisy as you would expect.I would not think it would have been advisable to operate it in heavy seas where there was a danger of losing the "float". The type as operated by Hovercraft was probably at the limit of passenger capacity..... much less than the conventional ferry and without the usual payload.
Probably all of the above and primarily the fuel burn/cost. Of all of the x-channel methods I have used, I found the hydrofoil the best, bar the aeroplane of course.
When I was moved (against my will!) from York to Pompey as a kid, the parents attempted to cheer us up by taking us on the Southsea-IoW hovercraft. It didn't work, what with the destination being Ryde, on a Sunday, in the rain. Kids can be arses... The Russkis, Ukranians, Greeks & Chinese still plough the military hovercraft furrow with this magnificent beast, the 500+ ton Zubr class: I want one... Never seen a more 'supervillain' vehicle.
