Why Most Hovercraft Have Disappeared

[@NotWhatYouThink]

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[@Theflaminggunslinger]

First

[@johndc2998]

No way you live in Canada too! Cheers from Mid east brother

[@michaelmccarthy4615]

Canada doesn’t seem to be pulling their weight in global defense…. ;)

[@tillycatcat]

This video is one of my least favourite - wayyy too long and jumps around different topics with no clear journey from start to finish. Maybe these should be a two chapter affair in future.

[@Theflaminggunslinger]

@@tillycatcat hey no one caresssssssss

[@jacobpedersen8661]

So the hovercraft just kinda goes out on icey rivers and basically does doughnuts and "burnouts" and whatnot? Looks like a really enjoyable job!

[@25mm25]

That's what I thought! Looks like a lot of fun!

[@membranealpha5961]

i imagine the feeling of driving it would be a truly unique feeling

[@robertkerr4199]

It looks like fun, yeah. And if you like paperwork more than screwing around in a hovercraft, it's a great job! If it was a private company, the job would probably be one of the best in the world, but Environment Canada runs these, and you don't want to work for the Canadian government.. Unless you like putting 30 years of your life into job, just to get screwed out of your pension... :( Search and rescue is where it's at, if you want work as a hovercraft operator, or doing line inspection up in the skeg.

[@bluedragontoybash2463]

need some Tokyo Drift soundtrack.

[@TheOMT]

It reminds me of my mum defrosting the freezer with the vacuum cleaner exhaust

[@That-Guy-79]

They never told me in school that I could've been an ice-breaking hovercraft captain paid to do donuts down on the river. I think my counselor was pretty narrow minded.

[@Wolfsschamane]

Or your counselor knew that winter doesn't last long enough for this job to be necessary more often than 1-2 months a year. What you really should ask yourself is what the hovercraft pilots do the other 10 months a year.

[@dwavenminer]

​@@Wolfsschamane Search And Rescue...

[@Wolfsschamane]

@@dwavenminer Possible, if search and rescue is often enough necessary in that area. Maybe they use regular boats most of the year for that but it's certainly not doing donuts on a frozen river with a hoverboat.

[@procatprocat9647]

Well as you live in the Sahara desert, maybe they were right....

[@DeltaInsanity]

​@@Wolfsschamanehave you ever considered not everyone lives in the same climate as you? Many places have more winter months than summer months.

[@ACME_Kinetics]

Another advantage is that they're pretty good at not triggering mines. Lower magnetic signature for naval mines, and very little surface pressure for land mines.

[@TheMonkey747]

Except the kind of mines with prong triggers...

[@Wolvieonepunch]

Yep that would be important😅😅😮

[@GYI5U]

Ah yes I saw this explained in the documentary "James bond 007 die another day"

[@stefflus08]

It does nothing to lower magnetic signature other than moving the hull a few meters away. Material choice is much more important, because magnetic triggering is much more advanced than it used to be. Hovering can reduce or eliminate shockwave coupling between water and hull, which is a bigger deal than the more visually spectacular side of a naval mine explosion. And it can be done so it makes very little acoustic signature for mines that trigger by sound. But the propeller driven models fail in that regard.

[@cvr527]

@@TheMonkey747 The prong triggers are from small anti-personnel mines.

[@joshcochrane1088]

Chapter suggestions (for those interested to skip to a section): 0:00 Intro / Not What You Think 1:47 Hovercraft basics 3:11 Modern Hovercraft Development, SR-N1 5:04 Two Important Innovations from SR-N1 6:41 Advertisement: War Thunder 7:37 Passenger Hovercraft Ferries (SR-N4) 9:45 Technological Dead-End 11:17 The reality: useful in specific situations 12:10 Canadian Cost Guard icebreaker hoverboats 13:38 Military landing craft 14:41 Surface-Effect ships / 100kt Navy 15:53 Zubr 18:18 American LCACs & Expeditionary Transfer Docks (ESDs) 21:45 Closing & Outro Advertisement

[@yasminbarry7941]

Thank you for taking the time to do this. So ..... Why did they disappear?

[@EmperorDank]

@@yasminbarry7941 Its explained in the video

[@yasminbarry7941]

@@EmperorDank : Thank you. I should stop doing several things at the same time.

[@alpiekaar]

if only I read this first

[@Comnlink]

The CCG’s hovercraft are not only icebreakers but are also genuinely great SAR platforms. And their crews are great to work with.

[@nickgoodall578]

The hovercraft is cool, but so are helicopters, and a helicopter can perform a rescue on Georgia straight or on grouse mountain. I suppose the hovercraft could too, it just takes ages to drive one all the way up mountain highway from Burrard Inlet!

[@Comnlink]

@@nickgoodall578 oh the folks from the 442 are lovely and some of the best at their jobs there is. But the hovercraft and the Helicopters do different jobs, same with the MLBs and RHIBs. And together they do a better job than either of them could do on their own.

[@Basshoeshop]

Sar???

[@theangryotaku3361]

@@Basshoeshop Search And Rescue

[@jaquigreenlees]

@@Basshoeshop SAR is the abbreviation for Search And Rescue. Which is the most frequent task for the Canadian Coast Guard here on the West Coast.

[@theharper1]

I travelled across the English Channel in 1982 by hovercraft and it was fantastic. The captain announced "our flight today will be at an altitude of six feet". The ride was fast and smooth and not noisy as stated in the video.

[@NotWhatYouThink]

Interesting! A few people commented that their experience was in fact very noisy. Maybe these were different hovercraft?

[@theharper1]

@@NotWhatYouThink maybe people have forgotten how noisy most aircraft were in the 70s. I've been on plenty of one hour flights in Turboprops which weren't exactly peaceful. The SR4 was never going to survive the completion of the Chunnel anyway, but I'm glad that I got to experience that flight. :) PS If people are comparing the noise level with a ship or a train rather than a propeller driven aircraft, they're crazy.

[@ericrawson2909]

Used it many times. Normally very fast. One time the sea was rough. Crossed the channel at half speed. Half the passengers were clutching sick bags!

[@theharper1]

@@ericrawson2909 no doubt I was lucky to have good weather!

[@syntheretique385]

@@ericrawson2909 was a kid when I visited England with my dad in the early 80s. Trip was a breeze on the way to Dover but on our trip back the sea was a little rough and I noticed some passengers feeling sick. Still was one of the most exciting moments of my childhood!

[@skyden24195]

For Christmas of 1989 I received a one and a half foot-long, remote controlled hovercraft. It was a challenge to control but a lot of fun. However, given that industrial/commercial/military strength hovercraft skirts are relatively easy to damage, I'm sure you can imagine how much easier the skirt on a much smaller, toy hovercraft would be. I managed to keep my hovercraft up and running for about a year, but in addition to the eventual skirt damage, like so many remote-controlled vehicles of the time, the rechargeable battery-pack steadily lost its rechargeability, so the hovercraft would start dying out in less and less time. This aspect almost saw my hovercraft sink into a small creek near where I lived at the time, (Illinois, USA).

[@nos9784]

No emergency flotation construction by using styrofoam or something? Huh. Well, mine didn't either, but we made that for classroom experiments. Circular, ~3'3", with a car battery, two camping mattress blowers, and room for one person. That was fun!

[@reinhard8053]

I also have such a toy. It is really fun to go on different surfaces. And it has a styrofoam body which floats. You can observe every slightly uneven road as the hovercraft goes to the side of the slope if you slow down.

[@skyden24195]

@@nos9784 nope, no back-up floatation implements. I remember that when my craft started to lose power in the creek, I yelled for my younger brother, who was standing closer to the creek, to jump in and save it. Of course, he just looked at me like I was crazy. Fortunately, there was enough power to get the craft closer to the edge where I could reach it without having to put more than one foot into the water. (This happened in late fall/early winter, so the water was very cold.)

[@skyden24195]

@@reinhard8053 those little things where part of the challenge. When I first got my craft, the ground was covered with snow, so it made it pretty easy to drive the craft over what was usually grass and what not, just as long as the slope wasn't too steep. But no styrofoam body on mine. If it sank, it sank.

[@thepessimisticoptimist9375]

I had this toy as well. Does anyone remember the name. I remember it was neon yellow/green. It was called the Typhoon made by tyco. I got it for Xmas in 92 I think

[@surferdude4487]

i remember one year that the ice broke up on Lake Simcoe while people were out there ice-fishing. It was one brave cottager that used his private hovercraft to rescue most of the stranded fishermen. I don't remember how the rest were rescued but there were no fatalities.

[@S.E.C-R]

I’ve always been fascinated by these things… in 2019 we had a massive Navy hovercraft “storm” our beaches here in Warrenton Oregon twice, once to bring supplies from a ship sitting out in the ocean and a second time to bring troops, all as a training exercise. It was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen!!

[@bc-guy852]

Are the beaches and coastline there similar to what they'd have in Taiwan?

[@S.E.C-R]

@@bc-guy852 I don’t know what they’re like in Taiwan, but our coastline is described as “rugged”. It depends on location, but we do have nice beaches, it’s usually too cold and windy to do much though.

[@hippiesaboteur2556]

Yeah I grew up here in eastern north Carolina, where our coastline is nearly almost entirely flat, low-lying expanses between the ocean/intracoastal waterway, estuaries & salt marshes, or swamp. The majority of the terrain almost anywhere throughout the outer banks (which for the most part are very low, narrow & skinny chain of coastal islands, and form a protective natural barrier that runs the entire length of NC's coast. between neighboring barrier islands, typically one island's northern-most tip & the southern-most tip of the other, are the waterways connecting fresh inland waters to the ocean, and also contain channels for maritime traffic, allowing for passage between intracoastal or inland waterways, local or private harbors/docks/slips, & the 3 state ports to & from the open ocean and much larger, deeper main sea lanes) is by and large mostly long, wide, flat, open sandy beaches. This exact kind of geography was particularly chosen right before the second world war by the War Department (now the Department of Defense) as the best location to build & utilize as Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, the perfect place on all the east coast of the US, and most ideal type for amphibious operations, especially with regards to LCACs. From my childhood to this day, I've lost count of how many times I was spending a day at the beach with family or friends, there would be US Navy ships anchored a few miles off-shore, and all of a sudden multiple LCACs and AAVs (amphibious assault vehicles aka Amtraks) would come into view on the horizon, and within a few minutes would pull up onto the beach, sometimes just a few hundred yards down the beach from the rest of us where Navy Seabees would be waiting for their arrival. they'd drop ramp and Marines, their gear & vehicles would disembark and proceed further inland, and then those LCACs would fire their engines back up again and return back to ship... All of this in a matter of a couple minutes. Truly an impressive sight, that is, when you weren't at times having to cover your face & eyes to keep from being sand-blasted by the excessive amounts of beach sand kicked up whenever their engines were still running wide-open. Totally worth it though to be able to watch all that kind of stuff, especially from that far away

[@FYMASMD]

@@rachejohnson5427it must suck to be you. Of course when you need help where will you be? In the city where there are hospitals and people to help you.🙄

[@mr.person1219]

I assume these places are in America...? Unless these are countries

[@TAP7a]

One of my most treasured memories is my grandad taking me to the seaside to see the hovercraft. The volume and scale of it was mind-blowing. When we got back he challenged me to a drawing contest, which he obviously dominated. Problem was that I was like a 7 year old, and he was one of the top electrical engineers in the country that CERN kept on trying to scout to follow-up on some 10kA switches he designed for them but he wasn't interested in leaving his village. He had a minor leg-up in technical drawing skills

[@ollywillers3868]

The Portsmouth-Isle of Wight Hovercraft is brilliant. Taking a walk on the promenade in my home city and seeing it take off to IOW is still cool to this day, over 20 years since I first saw it.

[@joestandby28]

Well, hello from the other side 😂

[@niktimes3]

I never thought we’d see Portsmouth on her, not what are you think video

[@joestandby28]

@@niktimes3nor the island but this is the second one I noticed he previously mentioned in another video about RAF ventnor

[@bennytsb5719]

I love seeing it do drifts as it leaves Southsea 😂 very fun

[@conorthompson943]

It's brilliant, so long as the wind doesn't pick up too much!

[@statelyelms]

I love how they basically just said "yeah, the optimal way to use this thing is to do drifts and burnouts"

[@JebAlert]

They are actually very fun to race for that reason in the few racing games that feature them such as The Crew 2.

[@michiellombaers3198]

The SR.N4 were really loud. I remember sailing in the North Sea near the coast of Belgium in a fog and hearing what seemed to us a C-130 flying extremely low. I turned out to be the ferry approximately 60 nautical miles away. The fog made the sound carry way further than we expected.

[@renefrijhoff2484]

What would you expect with 4 gas turbine engines with a total of 3800 shp or 2800 kw power and 4 19 feet or 5.8 meter diameter variable pitch props (Mk. III).

[@michiellombaers3198]

@@renefrijhoff2484 Yeah, fair enough but 60 freakin' miles? It really surprised me.

[@derekdekker9685]

I dont think the British coast is 60 Nm away

[@renefrijhoff2484]

@@derekdekker9685 Nope, it's about 33,1 km or 17,87 Nm.

[@michiellombaers3198]

@@derekdekker9685 Correct. The hovercraft was leaving Calais and we were on the edge between Flandres and the province of Zealand.

[@jenniferstewarts4851]

Some places still use hovercraft as both cargo and passenger ferries. There are communities located in remote area's where the only access often is ice road in winter, and hovercraft in summer. marsh/bog/permafrost tundra can be very inaccessable during the summer and many of the rivers are unusuable because of shallows. So in cases like this hovercraft transports come in very very useful.

[@grahamsmith9541]

There is still a passenger hovercraft service. In England between Southsea in Portsmouth and Ryde Isle of Wight. With crossings every half an hour. Its been running since 1965.

[@DrMJT]

The France/UK Hovercraft was VERY successful for cross channel transport. They did not go out of service due to hiccups, they went out of service because the channel tunnel opened... they were excess to capacity. Additionally the Hovercraft service to the Isle of Wight still operates Daily from Southsea to Ryde in 10 minutes. They are used where the topography makes them best fit for purpose transport. They are Not a failure for Passenger and car ferries.

[@christophertelford]

The SR.N4 operated regular services between 1968 and 2000. It always annoys me when people focus on the end of life of such a vessel and then call it a failure despite over 30 years of successful operation. I feel similarly about Concorde.

[@renefrijhoff2484]

Agreed, though there is also 1 other aspect that made an and to the SR N4 hovercrafts. They contained 4 Rolls Royce 3800 shp gas turbo engines (the Mk. III anyway) which burned 1000 gallons an hour at a cruise speed of 50 knots. Max. capacity was 8068 gallons.

[@kramelbbiw]

The video does cover all of your points later - it's a pity they included that incorrect assertion at the start :-/

[@westrim]

He said literally all of that.

[@DrMJT]

@@westrim Yes he mentioned them but with the Title of being absolute failures... he did not use the narrative to properly or adequately defend his supposition / Title!

[@ohlordy2042]

I'm a geologist who does a lot of work on large, salt lakes in Australia. A number of efforts have been made to use hovercraft for transport across these salt lakes....even to the point of making hovercraft mounted drill rigs. These efforts all failed, unfortunately. The salt crust on most of these salt lakes is so rough and jagged that the hovercraft "air skirts" tended to shred quickly, thereby requiring frequent replacement. This became prohibitively expensive and eventually killed the project. We're currently looking to revive the concept with a very specialised hover drill rig. We're looking to fit an aluminium rim around the base of the air skirt to resist abrasion from the rough lake surfaces. There will be no forward propulsion for this rig. It is simply a skirt and fan designed to make the rig hover. The rig (weighing approximately 20 tonnes) can then be pulled along slowly by a light ATV type tracked vehicle. The aluminium rim scratches along on the top of the jagged salt, protecting the skirt. If we can make it work, our life will get a whole lot easier.

[@creatorchris712]

Why cant the new skirt with the aluminum be used while the rig has forward propulsion ?

[@ohlordy2042]

@@creatorchris712 It probably could....anything is possible with enough money and effort. However, in the interests of making it as cheap, simple and low maintenance as possible, there will be no forward propulsion. A lack of propulsion is no real loss to the versatility or usability of the rig, anyway. It typically spends months on individual projects drilling fairly closely spaced holes, so only needs to be moved long distances on a handful of occasions in a year. And, by making it "weightless" with an air skirt, towing it long distances over the lake is no major logistical challenge.

[@charliewebb7812]

I'm so ferry surprised this video came out...

[@theshinywaffle]

I see what you did there 😅

[@MihalisNavara]

I used to see the zubrs passing by when I was serving the Hellenic Navy. The noise is very distinctive and can be heard from far.

[@nolesy34]

Noise from hell

[@ForgettableS]

Being an ice breaking hovercraft driver looks like such a fun job

[@gaveintothedarkness]

True, but your career never goes forward. It just goes around in circles.

[@MarkIsTiredAlways]

​@@gaveintothedarkness bruh

[@Leo-gt1bx]

They can not break ice it is a click bait title

[@gravityhypernova]

@@Leo-gt1bx it would be click bait except for you know, the clips showing hovercrafts being used to break thinner ice.

[@noneofyourbeeswax01]

Boss: _"Ok, today we need you to get your sweet ride out on the river and do a bunch of donuts, handbrake turns and Akira slides"_ Driver: _"Not again... can't you get Joe to do it?"_

[@Spreadie]

I use the Isle of Wight / Southsea hover crossing on a regular basis. It's still the quickest way across the Solent.

[@juliegale3863]

I went on the small Portsmouth to Isle of Wight hovercraft ferry in the 1960s. One way was in a storm and it sure was bumpy. The craft lifted cornerwise and crashed back down. Seats were no more than a covered boards and hard. I was glad to get back on land. Even the normal ferries can be quite frightening in a storm despite it being only a narrow channel. Yes, done that too.

[@martindunstan8043]

They're much bigger and far more comfortable here now I promise, all fancy with union jack/flag livery✌️

[@KlaxontheImpailr]

There’s a video game I love called Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak, about the crew of a desert version of an aircraft carrier. If they made a similar game based in our world I think it would be a hovercraft carrier.

[@whyjnot420]

I have loved these machines for decades, ever since I was a kid. Yet I had never heard about their use as riverine icebreakers. Even though here in New England I am well aware of the damage potential of ice dams. Thanks for that.

[@BigMacProDaddy]

The ESD is an incredible amount of capability for the money. As we saw in the Haiti earthquake, where all docks were destroyed, there was no shipping ability other than flight ops. These ships create a virtual port wherever the ship to shore connectors may land. These ship ships are very well built and probably not too expensive to maintain considering their capabilities. Just like the mercy, and the comfort

[@lancerevell5979]

I was thinking this. ESDs and hovercraft are perfect for getting supplies and emergency responders onto the beach after a hurricane, earthquake, etc.

[@kennethsteiner3331]

Unfortunately the EDS is being phased out.

[@tyrlant2189]

It must be expensive, why keep a fleet of hovercraft if you can use a shallow hull boat or helicopter or something?

[@fuzzy8593]

Epic profile pic.

[@ikevorisek1517]

I'm trying to think of who the commander and chief of the US was in 2022 that would eliminate the only way to connect 2 ships for maximum advantage. Couldn't be the same guy that led the phenomenally successful withdrawal from Afghanistan. Or the guy that drained the strategic oil reserves. Or the guy that let terrorists shoot at bases and ships for multiple weeks before responding. It's not possible it's the same guy because this president is the most intellectually enabled individual that ever led the country and I don't believe that he would do anything to endanger the citizens of Ukraine and getting all of our weapons reserves into their hands.

[@donaldasayers]

Hovercrafts are not immune to causing sea sickness. I took one of the last crossings of the Channel by the big hovercraft, the weather was at the very edge of causing the crossings to be cancelled. The hovercraft was going up the one side of the waves and crashing down the other, everyone looked green. My friend's father who had invited us on the crossing, was talking loudly about the French Patisseries we would be visiting to sample the cream cakes. Bastard. Lol. It was a great crossing, we had to come back by ferry that was much worse in that weather.

[@danskkr]

So true! I've never been as seasick as i have aboard a hovercraft to calais. It was not just that we were bouncing over 2m waves, but the fact you couldn't go out on deck for fresh air. Thankfully it was only 30 min trip but i felt sorry for whoever had to clean up the toilets after!

[@westrim]

He made that clear in the video at 8:38

[@marksavage6041]

@@danskkr I think you'll find that your incorrect about being able to go on the outside deck of the Hovercraft. It would have been physically impossible as they didn't have outside decks. I think you'll find that you where taking about the 71m SeaCat Service that was operated by Hoverspeed. My proof for backing it up is that I worked for them as Terminal and Onboard Staff.

[@danskkr]

@@marksavage6041 It was Dover to Calais and I think it was Hoverspeed so you are more of an authority then me for sure! But it was seriously choppy, I had a hangover and just remember being so seasick and feeling trapped in the cabin desperate for some fresh air. The hover craft was bouncing over the waves the whole way - if there was a deck it probably wouldn't have been safe in those conditions and they may have locked access to outside?

[@ericrawson2909]

The plural doesn't have an s. Like the plural of aircraft is aircraft. Also one canon, many canon. I guess in the end no one will notice that another grammar rule has changed. Thanks to the presenter for getting it right.

[@peterellis9105]

Hovercraft are also well suited to be used as lifeboats in tidal estuaries where they are well suited to sandbanks and very low water depths. We have them at Southend on the River Thames.

[@jerry2357]

There's one at Morecambe, too. The sands of Morecambe Bay are treacherous, and the tide comes in fast (remember the Chinese cockle pickers tragedy), so an RNLI hovercraft is ideal.

[@sylviaelse5086]

I crossed the English channel eight times or so on the hovercraft. It definitely wasn't smooth, and it equally wasn't quiet. But I found the trip time short enough for sea-sickness not to be a problem. But if the train had been an option at the time, I'd have used that instead, once the hovercraft's novelty wore off.

[@grizzlygrizzle]

It wasn't very scenic, either, with the windows spattered with salt spray. I found it mostly unpleasant, with the noise and all, but it was fast. I've taken traditional ferries, fast catamaran ferries, and even a hydrofoil ferry, and all of them were more pleasant.

[@cptrelentless80085]

It was a shitty ride, cramped and uncomfortable inside

[@sylviaelse5086]

@@grizzlygrizzle Yes, I remember being pleased that I'd bagged a seat at the front, only to discover that one could see very little.

[@NWChickenDad]

I served on hovercraft in the US Army. During the 80's and early 90's the Army operated the LACV-30 which stood for "Lighter, Air Cushion Vehicle, 30-Ton. (Lighter refers to a vessel that is used for transferring cargo from ship to shore, not it's weight or size.) The LACV-30 didn't really live up to its 30 ton name, because you had to count the fuel as part of the weight, and as I remember, we could carry 3000 gallons of fuel, which ate up a big chunk of the cargo capacity. It burned about 250 gallons per hour. We used to joke that it's primary mission was to convert JP-5 (aviation fuel) into noise. We were very good at that. Sometime in the mid 90's the Army got out of the hovercraft business and sold them off. I do get to tell people that I was an Army naval aviator though. Definitely one of the stranger jobs in the Army.

[@KevinSmith-ys3mh]

Operating from Army LST`s? Another oddity the US Army is trying to offload, along with air cargo transport as so I have read!

[@NWChickenDad]

@@KevinSmith-ys3mh The Army didn't have any LST's. We would cooperate with the Navy if we needed to be hauled somewhere. The Army did have 5 LSV's (Logistical Support Vessel) which were 275' landing craft, as well as a 375' landing ship called the "McHenry". We also had 1600 and 2000 class LCU's, as well as LCM 8's (Mike boats) and various tug boats and barges. Quite the little navy. Most of it operated out of Ft. Eustis, VA. I was stationed down the road at Ft. Story, VA, where we had two hovercraft companies, as well as a unit operating the LARC-LX, a giant boat/truck with wheels.

[@grantbrown7594]

I look forward to your vids all week long my man!

[@petersmythe6462]

"how often do you need to travel over swampy areas, traverse from [water] to land, or over ice?" I mean, I would definitely use that ability if I could.

[@kerwinbrown4180]

Alaska would love it as would some parts of Canada.

[@ATASD]

​@@kerwinbrown4180Unfortunately neither Alaska, nor Northern Canada currently have hovercrafts in active commercial operating

[@kerwinbrown4180]

@@ATASD I wonder what the negatives of commercial hovercraft are.

[@ATASD]

@@kerwinbrown4180 Significant noise and stability of most of the hovercrafts.

[@kerwinbrown4180]

@@ATASD thank you.

[@coned07]

small mistake: hovercrafts don't hover with newtons 3rd law, they hover by creating a high pressure zone of air between them and the ground. The craft can't touch the ground (or water) because the high pressure air is stuck between the ground and the hovercraft. They don't fly because if you remove the ground, the air can move freely out from under the craft. hope this makes sense

[@mkvv5687]

I noticed that. Like you say, it's ground-effect. He does eventually mention that.

[@Leo-gt1bx]

And neither do they break ice

[@fukkitful]

The video is correct. The air being forced down, pushes the craft up. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

[@fukkitful]

@@mkvv5687 The video is correct.

[@coned07]

@@fukkitful no, thats how helicopters work. I'm sure maybe at most 10% of the force keeping it up is newtons 3rd law, but most of it is just the hovercraft 'sitting' on the bed of air.

[@redrust3]

I read that another advantage of hovercraft is that they produce so little ground pressure said they don’t trigger mines. Great for beach landings where the enemy has had time to prepare.

[@paul756uk2]

I live in Portsmouth on the south coast of the UK and nearby in Lee on Solent back in the early 70s was a unit set up called the interservice hovercraft trials unit. It was created to test and evaluate the potential use of hovercraft for use in the military. Ie navy and army. One of the tests they did was using the BH7 for testing the effects of mines on hovercraft. I have video of some of this stuff. Not sure if any of it's on KZbin. Coincidentally, there's been a hovercraft museum for quite a while now and it's in the very same location and that BH7 is there together with a number of other craft including 2 of the SRN4 cross channel hovercraft. I actually watched one of them come in which had to use mobile blowers as it was unserviceable. The hovercraft had to cross a road to get from the sea to the base so traffic had to be stopped. I believe you can see the BH7 on street view.

[@SuiLagadema]

I think the Ekranoplan also deserves a mention in the video. Although not a hovercraft per se, it still uses the ground effect to move. Yes, I know it's Russian but I can't deny they look extremely cool.

[@Redicule_research._ridiculous]

The Baltic sea monster

[@Mark_Bridges]

@@Redicule_research._ridiculous Wasn't it the Caspian Sea monster?

[@Leo-gt1bx]

That is a true ground effect vehicle

[@ngauruhoezodiac3143]

They operated only in the Caspian Sea and were never used in combat so their usefulness is debatable.

[@Gorgutsforcongress]

What's wrong with it being Russian?

[@MrMask-cf7eo]

Imagine your job is to drift a big ass hover craft over ice

[@RevMikeBlack]

I rode on the hovercraft from Dover to Calais in 1973. I was a teenager who grew up on the Atlantic Ocean, so it was a huge thrill for me, especially when we left the channel and flew over land to the terminal. Too bad they're gone, but the operating and maintenance costs must have been horrendous.

[@paulsengupta971]

The Isle of Wight hovercraft are now diesel powered craft. They are far more fuel efficient than the old gas turbine powered craft like the SRN-6. The SRN-6 looked cool though and rode quite well!

[@anzac407]

I nearly got to work on a new stealth hovercraft a local company is making for the Australian military.

[@micaiahfonken]

oooo that sounds cool af

[@Crashryding]

‘Is’ making or ‘was’ making?

[@avrahamkrichevsky4831]

I have seen in the late 90-s the russian Zubr in Black Sea at the full speed. It was awe inspiring spectacle and as noisy as hell!

[@olenickel6013]

Let's hope it's not next on the list of spare soviet equipment Putin wants to send into the Ukrainian meat grinder.

[@avrahamkrichevsky4831]

@@olenickel6013 certainly so!

[@ramblingrob4693]

@@olenickel6013 just shoot a rocket launcher at the prop or skirt job done

[@Valderraan]

You didn't mention but there are two combat hovercrafts in Russian Navy at the Black sea. They are called Bora and Samum and belong to completely different kind of hovercrafts. They don't have skirts and cannot transit from the sea on the shore. But they are still very fast and carry ship-to-ship missiles.

[@AdverDoiren]

Samum is a different type of hovercraft, called Surface Effect Ship or sidewall hovercraft. This video is basically about Cockerell's design and its derivatives and mostly ignores other types of hovercrafts, that were created since circa 1910-s.

[@lindastone6868]

In the late 70s, I used to work for a family who had their fingers in a lot of pies, one of those pies being a small hovercraft with some form of innovation to protect the skirts/steer, that is to say from what I can remember, there were side panels that could be raised and lowered. One of these prototypes can still be seen in the grounds of a pub in Devon, UK, the Turtley Mill at Avonwick.

[@DeuxisWasTaken]

The jet thrust from those fans is negligible, the ground effect is doing all the work. Those fans basically only pump enough air to maintain high static pressure, they're much different from fans optimised for high-speed exhaust.

[@robertball3578]

There's two sets of fans, one is high static pressure for lift and one is for propulsion. I had a 16' hovercraft in early 2000's to support gold mining, Subaru aluminum 86 HP engine with a 6' diameter ultralight aircraft adjustable pitch prop with a large belt reduction drive and a drive off the front for the lift fans. Payload was 1,000 lb, hovercraft weighed about 900 lb as I recall.

[@mrspaceman2764]

Best job in Canada? Hovercraft Ice Breaker driver. That just looks like a lot of fun.

[@ForburyLion]

We still have public hovercraft services here in the UK between Southsea (in Portsmouth) and Ryde, it's a 10 minute crossing and worth it just to say you've been on a hovercraft. I went on it as a child and remember sitting at the front seeing us head towards ships at speed because the driver knew that ship wouldn't be there by the time we got there and we'd pass right behind it over the bowl wave. Very noisey too.

[@quint3ssent1a]

Mekong Delta was probably the place where hovercraft use made the most sense. Huge swampy area where overgrown swamp and river channels come hand by hand and where no constant roads were ever built - basically this was the golden land for hovercrafts.

[@ATASD]

Why it was? It doesn't exist anymore?

[@microwavefish]

This might seem a bit random but I don't think I've ever realised how lucky I am to have been on a hovercraft. (Funnily enough I have the same surname as Christopher Cockerell and used to live on the Isle of Wight where the first hovercraft was tested.)

[@Equiluxe1]

My grand mother had a hovercraft in her house in the mid 1950's made by Hoover as a three year old I could ride on it despite it not being made for that purpose, later on in life I crossed the channel in a hovercraft.

[@John-Smith02]

15:53 - 15:57 "Meanwhile on the other side of the globe, yeah I said it flat earthers." 😂

[@Viirrvill]

our military (Finland) had only one hovercraft ever. they started it only ONCE, and then decided to get rid of it. it was meant to be somekind of quick response commando or whatever unit's vehicle, but having a machine that can be heard about 100 km away kinda dampens the idea of sneaky soldiers....

[@Fireheart318]

I remember driving these things in Just Cause 2 & GTA San Andreas and being blown away that a vehicle could go anywhere on the water or land and not be slowed down or stopped by either!

[@draculastraphouse7863]

Lmao GTA San Andreas was my first thought when the video started

[@davidmarquardt9034]

Hovercraft have another benefit that the military likes, they can go over minefields as the ground pressure is low enough not to detonate mines. The LCAC's motto is " No Beach Out of Reach".

[@richmcgee434]

There are actually a couple of old 1980s tabletop wargames (Helltank and Helltank Destroyer) that postulated a near-future where warfare included surface effect ships as tank and infantry transports. Bit optimistic about that technology, but they also had armed ground effect vehicles acting as mechanized scouts, which also hasn't come to pass. There's also the somewhat earlier and much better known Ogre and GEV games, which again included both armed and infantry transport hovercraft - in their case, justified by tech breakthroughs in power systems, ultralight "bi-phase carbide" armor, and widespread use of railguns that made the GEVs the best option for long range scouting since helicopters and aircraft die the moment they clear the horizon. The Hammer's Slammers novels (and the games spun off from them) are probably the best known "hovertank" franchise, with 170+ ton armored juggernauts plated with irridium armor and using fusion engines to support their mass and give them good mobility. That one's set far in the future though, with interstellar colonies and loads of brushfire wars involving hired mercenaries from high tech planets. Fighting against them with the kind of primitive local gear your average colony can build locally is sure death so whichever side in a conflict can afford the better mercs tends to win. It's pretty grim as settings go.

[@shadowslayer205]

There's also Battletech, in which realism-inspired hovercraft are a staple of the light armored/utility vehicle class.

[@lephtovermeet]

Another big difference between hovercrafts and aircrafts is hovercrafts are often full of eels where as in aircrafts it's often snakes.

[@milesarcher.]

Only in Hungary will you find hovercraft full of eels.

[@formerevolutionist]

My brother worked on L-CACs in the Navy while I served on an aircraft carrier. He never really talked much about it, though. Maybe I'll share this video with him.

[@mikepanchaud1]

Hovercraft are still used in the UK by the RNLI to rescue people trapped on the vast mudflats around parts of the UK coast . They can reach areas inaccessible to conventional lifeboats or land vehicles.

[@andrewthomson]

You're in Canada!? Awesome to see us so well represented on KZbin! Greetings from Ottawa!

[@jfmezei]

You forgot: AVC L'Esprit-de-Pakuashipi, a hovercraft that acts as passenger ferry by Société des Traversiers du Québec across St-Augustin River to link St-Augustin to its airport on the Côte Nord of Québec, Canada Purchased 2012.

[@ATASD]

Yes, this is the only one commercial hovercraft line that remains in Canada.

[@helmernilsen]

I was literally playing war thunder during the ad and I lost a wing as you said things actually got destroyed

[@NotWhatYouThink]

Sorry for your loss 😜

[@ramonbakker7501]

ngl you made me laugh at "yeah i said it flat earthers" 15:54

[@hackman88]

2:01 Hovercraft do not hover based on Newton's Third Law: Action & Reaction. They hover because the air pressure below them is greater than air pressure above them.

[@henrya3530]

A commercial application of hovercraft technology that is *always* overlooked in videos is the Hoverbarge. These have been used successfully for decades to move cargo weighing 200 tons or more to remote locations that are otherwise inaccessible.

[@robertmorey4104]

Great Video, I had no idea about the ice breaking capability. Very cool.

[@crzysho]

I used to live by the st lawrence river. Always loved to see the hovercraft break up the ice. Man these beasts are loud, fast and really effective.

[@larslie2456]

The norwegian shield class ship is a surface effect ship in service right now. Top speed is classified but wiki lists it at 60+ knots.

[@wackowacko8931]

Another use for hovercraft in Canada and Alaska is to resupply mail, fuel and groceries to small towns in winter that don't have access to a runway and are right next to a river. Rivers are like naturally occurring roads when they are iced over. When the ice is thin on the river, it is about the only way to resupply these towns. Once the ice is thicker, trucks and snow machines can drive on the ice to supply these towns.

[@ckm-mkc]

I've taken a hovercraft across the channel, it was incredibly uncomfortable, like being in a paint shaker. The chunnel is much, much more comfortable and more convenient.

[@Axeiaa]

Interesting that the speed limiter is the air cushion not collapsing. With the advances in material science and nano structures I imagine at some point they'll make a skirt that unfolds really easy from the inside but nearly impossible to fold in from the outside which would enable silly fast hovercrafts.

[@keithb7981]

Another super presentation clear concise and extremely detail

[@jenphillips3212]

In the 60's my father was a fleet airarm pilot based at HMS Daedalus. I can remember he was invoved with the Royal Navy's assessment of hovercraft. I believe they built a slipway and a set of traffic lights to allow access to the Solent from the airfield. Since the UK lacks large wetlands, tundra or ice fields they were a bit of an expensive way of doing things.

[@StarrDust0]

Very good vid...I enjoy in-depth reviews like this.

[@beef1541]

Bering Marine Corp runs one/some in AK. Dad built a 16' one, small ones are super simple, low hp, fuel efficient as far as watercraft go and pretty capable, but wind drift is a nuisance in a breeze and can get dangerous with strong gusts.

[@kazekamiha]

If the Hovercraft's downsides can be mitigated it'll be a hell of a tool for whoever pulls it off.

[@alanaitken4206]

Thanks for sharing video, fantastic as when I was boy my dad took me "Princess Anne " across to France was great love the noise and bumping rides over rough channel, fond memories !

[@Turtle-sz7sk]

Had the GI Joe hovercraft. Shit was sick

[@JimUK]

I crossed the channel in one in 1983, the sea was really rough and it was a nightmare, not only were people being sick but they were being thrown around in their seats.

[@soysauce6977]

On the Isle of Wight they are still used as passenger ferries

[@Merthalophor]

where is that?

[@soysauce6977]

@@Merthalophor off the coast of England

[@FallenDRA]

@@Merthalophor 2:07 is one being talked about here

[@NotWhatYouThink]

Yes, we mention that too. But hovercraft failed as a passenger ferry service.

[@NotWhatYouThink]

🥉

[@jameswatters9592]

The one thing I remember from my one trip from Pegwell Bay in Ramsgate to Calais was the really load noise but the big advantage was the very short crossing time

[@Mello_84]

🤔Hmm. I guessing The Black Tusk from The Division 2. Must've solved the "Hovercraft problem".. Lol. Them damn things are as big as Aircraft Carriers.

[@antcantcook960]

I served on the USS Ashland out of Little Creek that had LCACs

[@revblade]

My hovercraft is full of eels.

[@rodrigogirao8344]

Do you want to come back to my place, bouncy-bouncy?

[@xenon53827]

6:34 "Makes you wonder what would happen if the engines stopped" - They did! I was a young kid, we went from uk to france across the english channel. It was wonderful - smooth, fast, overtook the ferry like it was parked, excellent. My parents got me some french ice cream, it was bliss until... On the way back, it started to bounce around. There seemed to be a problem with it. then it stopped, apparently 3 of the 4 engines or fans whatever had failed. They turned it off and suddenly, this rather small craft was bobbing around it the english channel like a rowing boat. the floor was slippery from all the people throwing up and we waited for ages whilst they flew an engineer out in a helicopter. They got the thrust engines working but not the skirt and so the rest of our journey was like being in a speedboat at sea, bump, bump, bump. Looking back, I did enjoy the hovercraft, I just wish it had not broken down that day!

[@Crashryding]

It’s very cool driving from LA to San Diego and watching the Marines training with LCAC’s coming ashore. Luckily (for me cause I liked the view) we were stuck in a traffic jam for an hour or so. It was very, very cool seeing Harriers and Cobra’s, AAV7 and LCAC as well as all the Marines coming ashore. Definitely something I still remember clearly from 25 years ago. Something I’ll go to my grave with a clear picture of.

[@cruss4612]

I've done those amphibious assaults. From the AAVs and LCAC. It is not a fun ride for most people, but I loved it.

[@audacity60]

I still think a SRN4 sized hovercraft could be viable, if it was SES. That is a hybrid hovercraft, with the solid sides going into the water. Only the front & back have flexible skirts. This is much better in choppy seas. It also lets you have propellers going into the sea like a ship. This is no longer amphibious, but it lets you run on cheap diesel engines rather than expensive gas turbines.

[@paulstewart6293]

Sailing up the Saint Laurent on a container ship (same week as the ocean ranger) our boat was ice strengthend and at Québec there was a wee ice breaker stuck solid. Being nice guys we took the time to break it out. Hovercrafts couldn't do that.

[@Alex-og3ev]

There are several more regular passenger hovercraft services in Russia at least. They operate as river ferries and their main advantage is that service does not stop in spring and autumn when ice sets/melts. Where usually there is a long gap between traditional ferry and ice road services. Those are quite small vehicles though, 9 to 20 passengers iirc.

[@nicobellic2465]

For me the greatest hovercraft is the one made by the three in Top Gear.

[@Leo-gt1bx]

Horrible show

[@CharlesStearman]

Another weakness of hovercraft when used on land is their low thrust-to-weight ratio which means they can only climb very gentle slopes.

[@al3k]

fansea... i'm dead... XD

[@petersmythe6462]

"Adding some turns can increase the size of the wake." translation: someone in Canada gets paid to drift a giant hovercraft.

[@NoahSpurrier]

I wonder what happens when a hovercraft runs over a person sleeping on a beach or swimming in the water. Deaf people go to the beach, too, you know.

[@hoverbovver]

There was an incident when a SRN4 ran over someone collecting fishing bait far off shore. He would hardly have felt anything. But the skirt would have knocked him flat. I have deliberately been under a hovercraft for research purposes and the air pressure and speed is so low you barely notice it.

[@NoahSpurrier]

@@hoverbovver that’s pretty cool. So you could, in theory, lie down flat on a beach and have one of these things run over you without harm.

[@Mirvra]

Not gonna lie, I kinda want to see the Zuber in action in a FPS game, either as a ''boss fight'' where you're defending a beach and it's constantly arriving to deploy enemy reinforcements, or as two-stage mission where the first part has you getting geared up inside it, maybe fending off some small interceptor craft using the chainguns, and then the second part being where you get deployed alongside a mechanized unit onto a beach to blitz inland.

[@jimwolaver9375]

CLICKBAIT: around 18:20 (near the end, of course) they begin talking about US air-cushions and by the end they acknowledge that the US still uses them all.

[@europhile2658]

I did one ride on a cross-channel hovercraft. I agree with all your comments and would like to add one - the sea spray prevented you from looking out. At that time Hydrofoils started and they were much better. Probably they failed as well - an idea for a future video? Also Ferries are much better than people think. For truck drivers that multi hour break is a valued rest stop

[@thedorsetflyer9113]

This brings back memories, as my dad worked for Hoverloyd in the 70s and 80s. Did a couple of trips across the channel, and it was loud, but I never had an issues with feeling sick as a youngster. I also had the chance to help direct a hovercraft into the departure/arrival area at Hoverloyd’s terminal. Unfortunately, these amazing machines were always very expensive to run, and the Channel Tunnel took away their speed advantage.

[@scottbegley1719]

Let's not skirt the issues. The skirt is the issue! Perhaps a thin layer material with roller balls all over over existing skirts would help the skirt pass over things more easily while protecting the air skirt. Think of a fabric with little roller balls enmeshed in it. Bouncing over Rocky surfaces would be easier on the air skirt allowing less snags and tears. Over water the roller balls may help with surface spray that causes drag. If the hovercraft can bear the extra weight it would help I think.

[@scottbegley1719]

Thinking main air skirt as they are then add a disposable over skirt with roller ball mesh or fabric. The cheaper disposable over skirt could be made to replace quickly as needed, hopefully that would give longer life span to existing hovercraft air skirt. Basically hover craft as they are could add the thinner over skirt. Cool to think that a vehicle could " change clothes". The outer skirt roller balls could be a good accessory. I think its awesome idea to think about. I don't think the outer skirt would last long, so being able to produce something cheap enough to be a hovercrafts best friend. Making the design so that few people would be needed to add or change the disposable over skirt. Over water the over skirt would maybe not be needed. I think Rocky uneven terrain is a threat to hovercraft that have to operate on especially for repeated or ongoing use on that terrain. Okay I'm over thinking. I'm poor as dirt so it's up to some one to take the challenge of protecting these amazing vehicles!

[@nolesy34]

@@scottbegley1719 the change clothes part reminds me of that bit in the movie wall e that he gets his foot out of the track and puts it into another

[@AndrewGivens]

Oh, Canada - home of fascinating documentaries about unlikely subjects you just don't think enough about. Great stuff.

[@MegaBanne]

There is a company called "Watertaxi Stockholm" who works mainly in the Stockholm Archipelago. They regularly use hovercrafts during winter, when not enough ships are breaking up the ice between islands. There is even a hover craft building company in Stockholm Archipelago.

[@alistairmcelwee7467]

I took the hovercraft from the UK to Calais back in 1984. It was like sitting in between two jet engines, although not everyone will agree. Also, the windows weren’t too much use as the downward fans blew spray up to obscure any view. Very comfortable ride though.

[@jantschierschky3461]

Been on a hovercraft about 25 years ago, it operated as a tourist tour boat in Broome, Australia. Was a great tour and the owner did love to show off.

[@Paul___L]

Thank you for the metric subtitles... I know they're not new, but still appreciated!