| Can you imagine what people would have made of | | | | gliding down the ramp and onto the water before |
| such a mystical and amazing vehicle as a hovercraft | | | | throttling up and shooting away from us. |
| when it first ran? | | | | You stand there with a huge smile on your face, |
| With the first commercially viable hovercraft design | | | | rooted to the spot until the hovercraft becomes as |
| built in 1955, the papers of the time led with some | | | | small as a dot, only the faint spray from behind |
| seriously inaccurate headlines - the worst of which | | | | marking it's position. Your brain knows it is quite |
| believed that the hovercraft built by Charles J | | | | possible and logical for such a craft to be able to |
| Fletcher was actually powered by a balloon and used | | | | stay afloat but that sense of boyish adventure and |
| a balloon to keep itself up off the ground! | | | | fascination with such things still subconsciously mugs |
| All though Charles Fletcher was not the first to think | | | | your brain, hobnailed covered boots of disbelief |
| of the idea and principles behind the hovercraft - that | | | | kicking away at you, trying to convince you that any |
| was Sir John Isaac Thornycroft in the mid 1870s - he | | | | minute now, it'll sink! |
| was the first to actually make a working model. | | | | Yet this subconscious knowledge still wouldn't stop |
| Sadly for him, as soon as he trailed it and proved the | | | | you climbing aboard with glee if anyone was ever |
| concept, the US Department of War appropriated it! | | | | foolish enough to utter those words all men love to |
| But common sense prevailed over the years and | | | | hear "Care to have a go yourself?" |
| now, you can buy (or even build) your own | | | | I frequently have to travel to the Isle of Wight on |
| hovercraft easily. | | | | business. Whenever I do - I head straight to the |
| Now admittedly, the hovercraft and associated magic | | | | Hover Terminal. To hell with the sensible, plodding and |
| it possesses is something that appeals far more to | | | | slow ferry - I'm for the bouncing and vibrating |
| boys than girls. | | | | hovercraft and I don't care if it does sink - at least I'll |
| We think it is the serious height of cool to watch a | | | | go with a huge smile on my face as well as a small, |
| hovercraft as the fans spool up, the air cushion | | | | hobnailed boot mentally kicking me, saying "I told you |
| around the body fills with air, fans whir, spray flies up | | | | so!! |
| and the whole beast starts to slowly float on air, | | | | |