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The hovercraft is a Great British institution. It was invented by Sir Chrisopher Cockerell, who sadly passed away on 1 June 1999, and ranks alongside Concorde and the QE2 in the transport hall of fame.

Sir Christopher's early theories on the hovercraft principle were conducted with a hairdryer, a pair of kitchen scales and two empty coffee tins!

The first hovercraft flight across the Channel by an SRN1 on 25 July 1959 took two hours!

SRN1 - First hovercraft to "fly" the channel in 1959.

In 1968 the first Mountbatten class SRN4 hovercraft, The Princess Margaret, was launched by the British hovercraft Corporation at Cowes on the Isle of Wight.

On 1 August 1968, The Princess Margaret entered commercial service with Seaspeed (then a subsidiary of British Rail) to inaugurate the world's first commercial passenger and vehicle-carrying hovercraft service. A year later on 8 August 1969, a second SRN4, The Princess Anne, entered service.

The Princess Margaret in her original Seaspeed livery, and prior to being "stretched" in 1979.

In 1978, The Princess Anne was "stretched" with the addition of a 55ft section to increase capacity. The newly designated SRN4 Mark III ('Super 4') hovercraft is the largest in the world. In 1979, The Princess Margaret was also "stretched".

An artist's impression showing the 55ft section added in 1979.

During their thirty year reign as the fastest way to cross the Channel, the twin Princesses have carried tens of millions of passengers between England and France.

For more information on hovercraft, see the Hovercraft Museum Trust website