Why Most Hovercraft Have Disappeared

Play War Thunder for FREE on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.

How does hovercraft work? How can it break ice, similar to an icebreaker? Why did the military first loved the idea of hovercraft, but then forgot about it? Any why did hovercraft became extremely popular as passenger ferries, and then completely fail? This is #NotWhatYouThink #NWYT #longs

Music by EpidemicSound:
Don't Bore Me Alberto! - Harry Edvino
Where the Air Is Thin - Jay Varton
Aural Imprints - Frank Jonsson
Mr Marshall - Imprismed
No Stone Unturned - Brendon Moeller
Composite Key - DEX 1200
Flightmode - Chris Shards
Granny Dance - Scoobadive
Some Kinda Medication - Pip Mondy
Pulp Noir - Elliot Holmes
One Last Drama - Philip Ayers
The Dropout - Guy Copeland
Ostinato - Vieveri
Cloak - Christoffer Moe Ditlevsen
Cold War Games - Gabriel Lewis
Torpedo - Tigerblood Jewel
Inbound - Brendon Moeller

Footage:
Fountain380
Jimbo's Place
Rob Morgan
JetFlix
Canadian Coast Guard
JustToFly X
PetrCola
Select images/videos from Getty Images
Shutterstock Enterprise
Storyblocks
Russian Ministry of Defense
US Department of Defense

Note: "The appearance of U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) visual information does not imply or constitute DoD endorsement."

[NotWhatYouThink]

Join us in War Thunder for FREE on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S:
Follow my link to get the game, including an exclusive welcome bonus:

[jacobpedersen]

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

[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.

[That-Guy-]

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.

[joshcochrane]

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

[Comnlink]

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

[skyden]

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 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).

[theharper]

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.

[TAPa]

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

[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!!

[michiellombaers]

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.

[surferdude]

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.

[jenniferstewarts]

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.

[ollywillers]

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.

[charliewebb]

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

[statelyelms]

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

[ohlordy]

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.

[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.

[vc]

The big hover crafts from England to France did not fail because of hiccups, they failed because they lost their cash cow(Duty Free shop) was taken away from them, and then came the Chunnel. It became very successful for years.

[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