Gone But Not Forgotten - The Cross Channel Hovercraft

For those that don't mind watching footage from yesteryear, here is a film presented by Matt Hayes which features the Cross Channel Hovercraft.

[@andreas1963ap]

In the late 80´s I had the pleasure to fly with " Princess Anne " from Calais to Dover and back again. I´m still impressed by this beauty to this day. Today I finally managed to buy the airfix modell at ebay auction. With this model I will always reminded of this spectacular experience. Thanks for this video and regards from germany.

[@richcarter2294]

Just stumbled across this video. Amazed by the clarity of the film, as so many other records of the SRN4 are so amateur and grainy! I rode the Hoverspeed service back in the mid 90's and it was such an amazing experience. We actually had a really rough crossing, with the skirt of the craft coming up above the window level as we rode the waves. I recall the Captain giving several public service announcements of how the craft was well within its capacities, but for many it was a wild ride. It's an amazing piece of engineering and also at a scale that's hard to comprehend unless your stood next to or on board of it. These machines were really big. Thanks for putting this video up.

[@christophermaer8880]

I wish this hovercraft in service again it’s such a amazing machine it should bring this back again

[@dfolt]

6:47 just waiting for him to spill the tea over the cabin chief's uniform. 😮 How I miss the S.R.N.4 - those hovercraft were from an era when the sky was the limit: the moon landing, Concorde, Boeing 747 and hovercraft cross-channel. It all happened around the time when I was ten. Had the opportunity to do several crossings from 1976 onwards, even in the N500 naviplane. Qualitywise, this film has been one of the best on YT. Thank you!

[@Bulletguy07]

By far the best cross channel trip I ever did was on the Hovercraft. Super quick crossing and no silly customs nonsense like you always got at Dover port coming off ferries. Just drive straight out from the Hovercraft terminal on to the main road. It was a sad day when we lost the option of Hovercraft crossing.

[@drips1030]

Why did they stop do you know please??

[@finnmeister]

As a kid, I was fortunate to go on holidays abroad which required getting across the channel via Hoverspeed and there was nothing, absolutely NOTHING, like sitting in the car on that tarmac runway waiting for one of these things to come off the horizon. When it arrived, just feet away, it was all sound and fury and scared the crap out of me. Just epic.

[@bigdmac33]

I really miss these type of presentations, where fun and enthusiasm for the subject is so evident and where you learn piles of stuff. The presenter really brings you along with him in his exploration while making the whole presentation so enjoyable. Today's equivalent, by comparison, so "fact" driven, can appear so reserved and even staid.

[@television1066]

Many thanks. Hope to post some more of these in the coming weeks. All of us on the crew always felt so very lucky to be there for these types of shoots. Loved every minute of it.

[@mrbojangles8133]

unfortunately now the orders are present this like you're dead inside

[@Evilroco]

I remember going to France as a young boy on one of these , great experience

[@television1066]

Me too. Best part of the holiday by a country mile!

[@markg660]

Wow …. I used this service from Dover to Calais in 1990 when there was no work in UK so we went ‘abroad’ to France / Belgium and Holland for business. One evening it was mill pond calm and we shot across as if on afterburners. I think under 25 minutes. Nothing like it since - how did we fail as a nation not to take this forward ?

[@digitalduch1111]

Great video 🎉 thanks for uploading!

[@sydive130]

Matt Hayes, used to love his fishing programs and as for SRN4 Mountbatten class hovercraft, dad would take us to Pegwell bay when we were kids, used to blow my mind 😂

[@Lensman864]

I also went to France on one and I have Super-8 cine film of its arrival taken by me; my earliest film/video recording. Good luck seeing out of the windows once on the water though ... much spray!

[@WolfiePeters]

We used it regularly, Calais to Dover, a fantastic way to cross the Channel, fast and frequent.

[@petertwinn786]

Definitely the best way of crossing the channel.

[@mutantthegreat7963]

Really nice...

[@davidjefferis4467]

I used the big hovercraft regularly back in the day. Sad to see it go., but the tunnel eventually made for a simpler and quicker trip.

[@jeritilley]

Is a trip through the Channel Tunnel actually quicker than the hovercraft used to be? I seem to remember that the hovercraft was faster, Jerry

[@davidjefferis4467]

@@jeritilley Probsbly about the same total time, though as it happens I only made hcraft trips in calm weather and low tide. Bit overall the tunnel has been a better crossing.

[@yazoo13127]

is WONDERFULL VIDEO KISS FROM FRANCE

[@mandoprince1]

Never got to go on a SRN4, but did go on the much smaller SRN6 over the solent. LOud and a bit bumpy, but great fun!

[@keithskelhorne3993]

I still get a hovercraft to Southsea once a week :) oh and back lol

[@jonlord9050]

These craft should have been taken on for cross Solent travel, I’d put money on it any idea would have been stopped by the ferry companies. Such a sad loss.

[@richardbriansmith8562]

Awesome Video

[@television1066]

Many thanks Richard. Will post a few more with Matt in the coming weeks

[@59patrickw]

I remember them going out of pegwell by near ramsgate and trips to the goodwin sands

[@Wichelroede]

Imagine this footage being 30 years old…

[@television1066]

About 20 years old. The scarey thing is it feels like yesterday.

[@Wichelroede]

@@television1066 Max. 25 years old. There is a BMW E46 in it.

[@barnojackson4921]

love them!

[@johnzmuzic]

Went over to France with the citroen bx a couple of weeks before it stopped , amazing .

[@selwynlambert1868]

Fun Fact-SRN4 "The princess Anne" is STILL the fastest "vehicle" across the Channel in 22mins.

[@simracer1256]

The presenter is an incredible actor.

[@christopherhunter2892]

I remember as a 9 year old travelling to Boulogne in 1969 on the hovercraft. As an 18 year old , 3 friends and I travelled in my Citroën DS to France on Hoverlloyd from Ramsgate. You had to time your drinking with the waves otherwise you would be soaked. The catamaran effectively replaced them.

[@santiagoduranr]

Siempre quise ir de pequeño en los 80...😢

[@davidb3172]

I saw these wondercraft from the Methane Progress and other tankers in the Channel. SRN = Saunders Roe Nautical.

[@mohdnasir5140]

The SRN4 is powered by four Bristol Siddeley 'Marine Proteus' gas turbine engines, each one driving a variable pitch propeller mounted on a pylon.

[@nicholasbell9017]

I think there are one or more of these at Lee-on-Solent, the hovercraft museum. Cockpit instruments from a Sunderland!! Wow, that's 1940's stuff. I was told that the propellers were from the Bristol Britannia airliner. Anyone know what the engines were, and when was the last one retired?

[@Wichelroede]

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoverspeed

[@tomroland5467]

Powered by four Bristol Siddeley Proteus Gas Turbines. Bristol Siddeley were eventually purchased by Rolls Royce. From experience I can tell you they would have consumed a lot of fuel.

[@television1066]

Thanks Tom, and yes I think they did.

[@grahamunderwood9353]

sadly gone

[@acptelford1307]

Went to France on one in the seventies. The issues were that you had to sit down for the whole trip, you couldn’t see out of the windows due to the spray. And the service was unreliable because they wouldn’t run if there was more than a light swell. They were quick, but the ferry was so much better.

[@flybobbie1449]

I wonder if the 12 foot club existed.

[@SuperTomsee]

Shame its gone now. Speedferries was hopefull as well but was squashed by the slow big boys of the drudgery of standard ferries

[@luiscarlosencina2697]

You studied foul it’s not you that I wand see but but what are tou looking that’s intrusting not you

[@sydive130]

Imagine the look on the faces of “dingy occupants “ if they had one of these beasts bearing down on them at 50mph😂