WEBVTT - HOVERCRAFT!!! 0:00:04.440 --> 0:00:12.319 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there, 0:00:12.360 --> 0:00:16.079 and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. 0:00:16.120 --> 0:00:19.799 I'm an executive producer with iHeart Podcasts and how the 0:00:19.920 --> 0:00:23.040 tech are you? So y'all already know what this episode 0:00:23.079 --> 0:00:25.560 is about, because it's right there in the title for 0:00:25.640 --> 0:00:29.080 the episode. The title itself is a reference to a 0:00:29.280 --> 0:00:34.560 nineteen ninety five Jackie Chan film called Rumble in the Bronx. 0:00:34.960 --> 0:00:38.400 So in the climax of that film spoiler alert, there's 0:00:38.440 --> 0:00:42.160 a scene in which a hovercraft goes absolutely ape through 0:00:42.280 --> 0:00:47.640 the city. It crashes into cars, it absolutely destroys Lamborghini, 0:00:48.400 --> 0:00:51.360 and it interrupts a rock band that's playing outside on 0:00:51.400 --> 0:00:53.560 the street. And it's at this point in the film 0:00:53.600 --> 0:00:56.480 where the drummer of the rock band stops playing mid song, 0:00:56.800 --> 0:01:02.680 stands up, points and yells hover aft, which is my 0:01:02.760 --> 0:01:05.280 favorite part of the whole movie, even with all the 0:01:05.319 --> 0:01:09.319 amazing fight sequences taken into account. And this is the 0:01:09.400 --> 0:01:12.600 sort of stuff that inspires tech Stuff episodes, because that's 0:01:12.600 --> 0:01:16.200 how my brain works now anyway, Yeah, Jackie Chan films 0:01:16.200 --> 0:01:18.840 from the nineties really a source of inspiration. So I 0:01:18.840 --> 0:01:21.400 thought it would be fun to do an episode tracing 0:01:21.600 --> 0:01:24.240 the history of hovercraft and to talk a little bit 0:01:24.240 --> 0:01:27.040 about how they actually work. And I also think this 0:01:27.080 --> 0:01:30.280 is the type of topic where you have one concept 0:01:30.319 --> 0:01:32.679 in your head when you first hear about it, Like 0:01:32.680 --> 0:01:35.240 when you first hear the word hovercraft, you might have 0:01:36.160 --> 0:01:38.000 a vision in your head of what that might be, 0:01:38.600 --> 0:01:41.040 and then ultimately you could be disappointed when you see 0:01:41.080 --> 0:01:43.919 it in the real world. That was my reaction anyway, 0:01:43.920 --> 0:01:46.800 because as a kid, when I heard the word hovercraft, 0:01:47.080 --> 0:01:50.640 I thought of some sort of semi magical vehicle that 0:01:50.640 --> 0:01:53.880 could levitate above the ground, probably something closer to what 0:01:54.440 --> 0:01:57.360 drones are, but without the rotors, right, Like there's some 0:01:57.920 --> 0:02:02.480 unseen force that makes the thing floatt. So I was 0:02:02.560 --> 0:02:05.440 kind of thinking of something similar to like the hover 0:02:05.520 --> 0:02:08.480 boards that are featured in the documentary Back to the 0:02:08.480 --> 0:02:11.880 Future too, But of course that's not how your typical 0:02:12.160 --> 0:02:15.920 hovercraft works. Hovercraft, by the way, are also called air 0:02:16.000 --> 0:02:20.440 cushion vehicles, and that air cushion gives a huge indication 0:02:20.520 --> 0:02:25.240 of how these things work. And arguably my whole perception 0:02:25.760 --> 0:02:29.280 or misperception of hovercraft isn't really fair. I mean, it's 0:02:29.280 --> 0:02:33.079 not the hovercraft's fault that I had an overactive imagination 0:02:33.320 --> 0:02:37.520 and unrealistic expectations. It is a fascinating invention, and it 0:02:37.560 --> 0:02:42.240 traces its history really back to the nineteenth century, when 0:02:42.280 --> 0:02:46.280 you had people sort of theorizing about it, but effectively 0:02:46.360 --> 0:02:50.000 for talking about making something that actually works. It's more 0:02:50.080 --> 0:02:53.040 like the middle of the last century. And I was 0:02:53.120 --> 0:02:56.320 born in the last century, and saying that way hurts 0:02:56.360 --> 0:03:00.080 a little bit. But the inventor of the hovercraft, the 0:03:00.120 --> 0:03:02.959 person that we credit as the inventor, so so I 0:03:03.000 --> 0:03:05.919 guess you could say sort of inventor of the hovercraft 0:03:05.960 --> 0:03:09.520 was a gentleman by the name of Christopher Sidney Cockrell. 0:03:10.000 --> 0:03:13.240 Now I say sort of because, as we will find 0:03:13.240 --> 0:03:15.639 out later in this episode, there was another person who 0:03:15.680 --> 0:03:19.760 came up with the same concept a decade earlier, but 0:03:20.040 --> 0:03:23.520 due to a technicality, this person had no ownership of 0:03:23.639 --> 0:03:26.680 this idea. But we'll get back to why that happened. 0:03:26.880 --> 0:03:32.119 So Cockrell's parents were both distinguished members of English society. 0:03:32.320 --> 0:03:36.640 His mother was Florence Kingsford cockerl. She was known for 0:03:36.720 --> 0:03:42.280 her artistic talents in calligraphy, illumination, illustration, and costuming. When 0:03:42.280 --> 0:03:45.760 I say illumination, I mean manuscript illumination, think of the 0:03:45.800 --> 0:03:48.600 stuff that monks used to do back in the Middle Ages. 0:03:48.960 --> 0:03:51.880 So way back in my college days, I focused my 0:03:51.960 --> 0:03:55.840 studies in medieval literature and medieval history, and after looking 0:03:56.040 --> 0:04:00.800 at Florence's work, I'm really amazed at how her evokes 0:04:00.840 --> 0:04:06.600 those ancient texts. Cockrell's father was Sir Sidney Cockrell, who 0:04:06.680 --> 0:04:10.600 came from a coal mining family. Like it astonishes me. 0:04:10.720 --> 0:04:14.280 He came from a family that worked coal mines, but 0:04:15.000 --> 0:04:18.719 he found himself thrust into the social circles of influential 0:04:18.800 --> 0:04:23.000 people who were in the artistic and literature worlds in England. 0:04:23.240 --> 0:04:27.040 So Old sid served as a personal secretary to British 0:04:27.120 --> 0:04:31.039 author and artist William Morris, and Sydney eventually became the 0:04:31.080 --> 0:04:34.880 director of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, England, where he 0:04:34.960 --> 0:04:39.440 had a bit of a reputation for having an incredibly 0:04:39.480 --> 0:04:43.040 effective method to convince hoity toity rich people to hand 0:04:43.080 --> 0:04:47.320 over some of their filthy lucre to support the museum. 0:04:47.640 --> 0:04:52.240 So Christopher Cockrell came from, if not blue blood, at 0:04:52.320 --> 0:04:57.360 least light blue blood Lemmelson Mit, which bills itself as 0:04:57.440 --> 0:05:01.560 the quote national leader in advancing in vention education in 0:05:01.640 --> 0:05:05.479 The quote says that Sidney Cockroll wasn't entirely sold on 0:05:05.520 --> 0:05:09.240 the idea of his son going into engineering, but that's 0:05:09.279 --> 0:05:12.440 exactly what young Christopher Cockroll wanted to do. And I 0:05:12.480 --> 0:05:15.440 find this notion rather like a money python sketch, because 0:05:15.480 --> 0:05:18.719 you have a man who comes from a coal mining family. 0:05:19.080 --> 0:05:22.080 He's defied the odds, he's become a director of a 0:05:22.120 --> 0:05:25.040 prestigious museum, and now he is concerned that his son 0:05:25.160 --> 0:05:27.200 wants to be an engineer. In fact, there is a 0:05:27.279 --> 0:05:31.920 money python sketch in which you have a family of 0:05:32.680 --> 0:05:37.320 It sounds like lower class English folk who are authors, 0:05:37.600 --> 0:05:39.760 who are a shame that their son wants to go 0:05:39.800 --> 0:05:44.200 into being a coal miner, flipping the old narrative on 0:05:44.240 --> 0:05:48.960 its head. So this is reminding me of that fictional sketch, 0:05:49.120 --> 0:05:52.520 you know, very silly stuff. But yeah, he didn't want 0:05:52.680 --> 0:05:57.359 Christopher to become an engineer. But whether he had reservations 0:05:57.480 --> 0:06:01.520 or not, ultimately Sydney agreed to support his son's pursuit 0:06:01.600 --> 0:06:04.960 of an education in engineering. In fact, according to the Guardian, 0:06:05.600 --> 0:06:09.400 Sydney offered Christopher the princely sum of ten pounds for 0:06:09.560 --> 0:06:13.120 every patent his boy would receive. This was back when 0:06:13.120 --> 0:06:15.880 old Chris was still a teenager. Sidney would call an 0:06:16.000 --> 0:06:17.840 end to that deal later on because it would get 0:06:17.920 --> 0:06:24.320 pretty deep, deep, pretty expensive. Christopher attended Petterhouse College at 0:06:24.400 --> 0:06:28.960 Cambridge University. In his obituary Cockrell passed away in nineteen 0:06:29.040 --> 0:06:32.120 ninety nine, by the way, in his obituary in The Guardian, 0:06:32.560 --> 0:06:36.240 Christopher Cockrell was said to have spent much of his 0:06:36.320 --> 0:06:39.800 spare time in college quote taking motorcycles to pieces or 0:06:39.880 --> 0:06:43.040 racing them end quote, and that this gave him the 0:06:43.080 --> 0:06:47.880 experience of practical background in basic mechanics and engineering, which 0:06:47.880 --> 0:06:50.080 is kind of cool, like the idea of learning by 0:06:50.320 --> 0:06:53.320 doing something you're already interested in. So that was already 0:06:53.360 --> 0:06:55.760 neat of course. Christopher by this point, by the time 0:06:55.760 --> 0:06:59.520 he was going to university, had already expressed a deep 0:06:59.520 --> 0:07:04.560 interest in engineering. Upon graduation, Christopher Cockerrell took a position 0:07:04.720 --> 0:07:08.760 with the Radio Research Company. This was in nineteen thirty five, 0:07:09.000 --> 0:07:12.040 so still relatively early in the days of radio. I 0:07:12.040 --> 0:07:14.320 mean radio had been around for a while, but still 0:07:14.680 --> 0:07:18.440 a fairly young science. And he joined the Marconi Wireless 0:07:18.520 --> 0:07:21.400 Telegraph Company and worked in an R and D department 0:07:21.600 --> 0:07:26.120 that largely focused on radar and he made numerous contributions 0:07:26.480 --> 0:07:30.400 to radio and radar technology. Many of those contributions were 0:07:30.440 --> 0:07:33.600 put to use by Allied forces during World War Two. Now, 0:07:33.640 --> 0:07:37.200 Christopher Cockrell made a career change in nineteen fifty, so 0:07:37.240 --> 0:07:39.240 the war hit was over. He continued to work in 0:07:39.320 --> 0:07:42.520 radio for a few years, but in nineteen fifty his 0:07:43.000 --> 0:07:47.640 father in law had left his wife a big sum 0:07:47.680 --> 0:07:51.240 of money, and together Christopher and his wife decided that 0:07:51.280 --> 0:07:54.640 they wanted to purchase a boat business in Norfolk, England, 0:07:54.920 --> 0:07:59.160 and Cockroll devoted his attention to managing this boat business. 0:07:59.320 --> 0:08:01.760 And it was to shift when I was reading up 0:08:01.760 --> 0:08:03.560 on his life that this actually gave me a little 0:08:03.560 --> 0:08:07.360 bit of whiplash, because here's someone who was instrumental in 0:08:07.440 --> 0:08:10.880 advancing technology and radio and radar, and now he's switching 0:08:10.880 --> 0:08:14.800 over to manage a boat business. But it was as 0:08:15.720 --> 0:08:18.320 a manager of this boat company that led him to 0:08:18.360 --> 0:08:22.880 start thinking about a solution to a really tricky problem 0:08:23.040 --> 0:08:27.400 and ultimately would lead him to inventing the hovercraft. So 0:08:27.560 --> 0:08:30.160 Cockrell got to thinking that there must be a way 0:08:30.760 --> 0:08:36.440 for heavy watercraft to travel much faster across bodies of water, 0:08:37.000 --> 0:08:40.640 and it would be possible if only you could get 0:08:41.040 --> 0:08:44.559 the boat out of the water. If you could remove 0:08:44.600 --> 0:08:48.480 it from contact with the water itself, if the craft 0:08:48.480 --> 0:08:52.000 could somehow float above the surface of the water, then 0:08:52.080 --> 0:08:55.120 that would eliminate all the friction that it otherwise would 0:08:55.240 --> 0:08:58.160 encounter as it moves through the water, and it would 0:08:58.160 --> 0:09:01.959 be able to move much more quickly than it could otherwise. 0:09:02.400 --> 0:09:03.760 But you just had to figure out a way to 0:09:03.880 --> 0:09:09.760 minimize or eliminate contact with the water. And if you 0:09:09.840 --> 0:09:11.760 could get it to lift up above the surface of 0:09:11.760 --> 0:09:16.000 the water entirely, technically you actually would have an aircraft, 0:09:16.320 --> 0:09:20.560 not water craft. But that was his starting point. He thought, 0:09:20.840 --> 0:09:24.959 how can I create a vessel that would minimize or 0:09:25.000 --> 0:09:27.400 eliminate contact with the water so that it can move 0:09:27.520 --> 0:09:31.559 much more quickly and efficiently. So Cockrell imagined a craft 0:09:31.640 --> 0:09:34.600 with a cushion of air underneath it. That cushion of 0:09:34.640 --> 0:09:38.439 air would provide a barrier between the vessel itself and 0:09:38.480 --> 0:09:42.200 the water or land underneath. If you could blow out 0:09:42.280 --> 0:09:46.160 enough air, it could skim right across the surface, whether 0:09:46.200 --> 0:09:50.120 it's water, land, or some mixture like mud or swamp 0:09:50.200 --> 0:09:54.600 or whatever, and it could potentially cut travel times significantly, 0:09:54.640 --> 0:09:57.280 at least as far as water goes maybe not with land, 0:09:57.440 --> 0:10:00.840 because as it turns out, if you're going across solid 0:10:00.880 --> 0:10:03.040 land and you've got yourself a road and you have 0:10:03.080 --> 0:10:06.319 a wheeled vehicle, you can zip along that pretty darn fast, 0:10:06.360 --> 0:10:10.880 and it would probably be difficult and very dangerous to 0:10:10.960 --> 0:10:13.560 operate a hovercraft at those speeds, because you've got to remember, 0:10:13.920 --> 0:10:18.200 hovercraft typically for propulsion's sake, is using wind power as well. Right, 0:10:18.240 --> 0:10:21.680 you've got a fan that points backward and you're blowing 0:10:21.720 --> 0:10:24.720 out airs and you know, obviously equal opposite reaction time. 0:10:24.760 --> 0:10:28.040 That means you're moving forward as a result with a 0:10:28.160 --> 0:10:32.120 proportional force, but that doesn't mean that you can easily 0:10:32.160 --> 0:10:36.760 do things like stop, and that turning is more of 0:10:36.800 --> 0:10:40.800 a gradual process as well. So moving at high speeds 0:10:40.840 --> 0:10:45.120 across land where you could occasionally encounter obstacles probably not 0:10:45.200 --> 0:10:48.280 the best idea. But anyway, in Cockrell's spare time, he 0:10:48.360 --> 0:10:51.400 started to tinker to see if this idea he had 0:10:51.960 --> 0:10:56.040 could be made practical. He wondered, first is it plausible 0:10:56.040 --> 0:10:59.719 and then is it practical? So early on, as a 0:10:59.760 --> 0:11:01.920 store where he goes, he used some tubes from an 0:11:01.920 --> 0:11:04.760 old vacuum cleaner as well as the vacuum cleaner's motor, 0:11:05.600 --> 0:11:08.319 and he used a pair of empty cans. The types 0:11:08.360 --> 0:11:10.920 of cans, it depends on which version you read. Like 0:11:11.000 --> 0:11:13.560 some say it was a couple of coffee cans. One 0:11:13.600 --> 0:11:15.920 was slightly smaller than the other. One was like, no, 0:11:15.960 --> 0:11:18.040 it's a coffee can, and then a cat food can. 0:11:18.440 --> 0:11:21.640 Some call them tin cans, some call them aluminum cans. 0:11:21.920 --> 0:11:23.680 I think what's important to know is he used a 0:11:23.720 --> 0:11:26.520 pair of cans. One was larger than the other one. 0:11:26.600 --> 0:11:29.760 He put the smaller one inside the larger one. He 0:11:29.880 --> 0:11:35.440 blew air so that it would go underneath the smaller one, 0:11:35.480 --> 0:11:39.880 which was turned face down I imagine, like open side down, 0:11:40.840 --> 0:11:44.800 and the air would create an air cushion, and the 0:11:44.880 --> 0:11:47.240 smaller one would end up hovering inside the larger one 0:11:47.280 --> 0:11:49.199 and just kind of bang around a little bit. So 0:11:49.240 --> 0:11:52.000 he saw that this was possible. It could create lyft, 0:11:52.480 --> 0:11:56.160 and that lift could be enough to counteract the weight 0:11:56.679 --> 0:11:59.160 of the vessel, in this case the little small can. 0:11:59.520 --> 0:12:03.360 So his concept had validity, and Cockrell got to work 0:12:03.440 --> 0:12:08.199 building on a prototype, an actual sort of small hovercraft 0:12:08.360 --> 0:12:10.439 that would be more substantial than just a pair of 0:12:10.480 --> 0:12:13.200 aluminum cans and some tubes. And it took him a 0:12:13.200 --> 0:12:16.440 while to build it, but by nineteen fifty five he 0:12:16.600 --> 0:12:20.880 had a working prototype, and he then had to decide 0:12:20.920 --> 0:12:22.560 what was he going to do with it. And he 0:12:22.600 --> 0:12:25.960 could have tried to create like a private business based 0:12:26.000 --> 0:12:29.880 off this, but the story goes that instead he thought, 0:12:30.040 --> 0:12:32.040 I'll show local officials, I'll see if I can get 0:12:32.040 --> 0:12:34.880 some investment in this and turn it into something viable. 0:12:34.920 --> 0:12:38.120 In that way, I'm not just sinking money into something 0:12:38.160 --> 0:12:42.920 that may never pan out. So he arranges a demonstration 0:12:43.520 --> 0:12:47.640 for his hovercraft prototype with some local officials, and the 0:12:47.720 --> 0:12:52.360 story goes that the local officials were astonished and more 0:12:52.400 --> 0:12:57.040 than a little frightened as Cockrell's prototype skimmed around inside 0:12:57.080 --> 0:12:59.720 an office that he had brought it into this office 0:12:59.720 --> 0:13:02.800 of the the local officials. He had fired up the 0:13:02.960 --> 0:13:05.679 engine that would drive the fan. So you got to remember, 0:13:05.720 --> 0:13:08.920 this is an internal combustion engine. It is burning fuel 0:13:09.200 --> 0:13:12.840 and letting out fumes, and it's very loud, and it's 0:13:12.920 --> 0:13:16.679 turning this fan, and the fan is making this hovercraft 0:13:16.760 --> 0:13:19.680 skim above the surface of the ground. And then there's 0:13:19.679 --> 0:13:22.160 not really a way of steering the hovercraft at this point. 0:13:22.160 --> 0:13:24.320 It's just showing a proof of concept. It's kind of 0:13:24.440 --> 0:13:26.800 bumping around like a bumper car all over the office. 0:13:26.920 --> 0:13:30.160 People are jumping up on chairs and desks and trying 0:13:30.200 --> 0:13:32.720 to get out of the way. And meanwhile, like I said, 0:13:32.720 --> 0:13:36.479 it's noisy and it's smelly. It made a real impression 0:13:36.960 --> 0:13:40.520 and it makes me think of that scene in Rumble 0:13:40.559 --> 0:13:43.319 in the Bronx where there's just a hovercraft gone wild. 0:13:43.840 --> 0:13:47.520 So the officials weren't quite ready to devote funding to 0:13:47.600 --> 0:13:50.840 Cockrell's invention at this point. There was this general perception 0:13:50.880 --> 0:13:53.720 in the nineteen fifties that England was not really that 0:13:53.880 --> 0:13:57.480 interested in investing in innovation. There was this perception that 0:13:57.520 --> 0:14:00.520 England was kind of backward at this point. They were 0:14:00.559 --> 0:14:02.560 focused more on things like, well, we're doing it this 0:14:02.600 --> 0:14:05.559 way because that's how we've always done it. Whether that 0:14:05.760 --> 0:14:08.880 was an accurate representation of what was going on in England, 0:14:08.920 --> 0:14:12.480 I can't say, but that was the perception. So consequently, 0:14:12.960 --> 0:14:16.440 the nation was starting to feel like it was falling 0:14:16.520 --> 0:14:19.680 behind some of the rest of the world. More than that, 0:14:20.560 --> 0:14:26.320 the officials who saw this demonstration decided, rather than fund 0:14:26.560 --> 0:14:29.320 Cockrell's idea, they would put it on a so called 0:14:29.600 --> 0:14:35.240 secret list, which effectively meant they were classifying his invention. 0:14:35.400 --> 0:14:38.440 They were putting it under classified information, and Cockrell would 0:14:38.440 --> 0:14:42.880 be legally prohibited from talking about it or finding some 0:14:42.960 --> 0:14:45.720 other means to fund his work that that would be 0:14:45.760 --> 0:14:48.440 against the law. Maybe he could find a way to 0:14:48.480 --> 0:14:50.920 fund it if he could somehow convince people to give 0:14:51.000 --> 0:14:54.280 him money without actually talking about the invention itself. But 0:14:54.440 --> 0:14:58.479 really it just meant that the officials were really hamstringing him. 0:14:58.840 --> 0:15:00.400 Now we're going to take a quick break, and when 0:15:00.440 --> 0:15:03.600 we come back, we'll talk about what happened next and 0:15:03.680 --> 0:15:07.880 how Cockroll was able to get some progress despite this 0:15:08.000 --> 0:15:10.840 initial setback. But first let's take a break to hear 0:15:10.880 --> 0:15:22.800 from our sponsors. Okay, we're back. So before the break, 0:15:22.840 --> 0:15:26.520 I talked about how Cockrell does this demonstration. Officials are 0:15:27.080 --> 0:15:31.680 taken aback and they decide to classify Cockroll's invention, which 0:15:31.680 --> 0:15:35.880 effectively makes it impossible for him to do any real 0:15:35.920 --> 0:15:39.560 work on it. This is despite the fact that Cockrell 0:15:39.600 --> 0:15:43.680 had demonstrated to them that his hovercraft could potentially solve 0:15:43.760 --> 0:15:46.800 a lot of problems like not only could it glide 0:15:46.840 --> 0:15:50.040 over water, it could go over land, it could go 0:15:50.040 --> 0:15:52.520 over lots of icky stuff that other vehicles actually have 0:15:52.600 --> 0:15:56.280 a lot of trouble with so marshes and muddy sections 0:15:56.320 --> 0:15:59.160 and stuff. You know, if you had a boat, you 0:15:59.160 --> 0:16:01.000 wouldn't be able to go through these because there's not 0:16:01.080 --> 0:16:05.080 enough water to keep the boat floating right. The boat 0:16:05.080 --> 0:16:09.480 would just get beached or mired. Same with vehicles that 0:16:09.520 --> 0:16:14.640 are on treads or wheels, they would eventually get stuck 0:16:14.960 --> 0:16:19.120 in really nasty muddy situations. But the hovercraft would float 0:16:19.160 --> 0:16:22.360 above all this. It could get you through to places 0:16:22.360 --> 0:16:25.320 that other vehicles couldn't unless you were using something like 0:16:25.360 --> 0:16:29.680 say a helicopter or an airplane. So Cockrel was really 0:16:29.720 --> 0:16:32.840 making a case for how this could be a really 0:16:32.920 --> 0:16:37.600 useful vehicle for all sorts of different applications, and none 0:16:37.680 --> 0:16:40.880 of that seemed to really matter to these officials. However, 0:16:40.920 --> 0:16:43.880 he did receive a patent for his invention in nineteen 0:16:43.960 --> 0:16:48.840 fifty six because he had filed for this patent before 0:16:48.920 --> 0:16:51.880 the officials had put the hovercraft on the secret list, 0:16:51.960 --> 0:16:56.640 so ironically, his invention was already public because patents are public, right, 0:16:56.680 --> 0:16:59.760 that's one of the elements of patents. When you file 0:16:59.760 --> 0:17:04.480 for a patent, your description of your invention is made public, 0:17:04.800 --> 0:17:09.680 but in return, you receive government protection for your idea, 0:17:09.880 --> 0:17:11.879 at least for a certain amount of time. So this 0:17:11.960 --> 0:17:13.760 is why we call him the inventor of the hovercraft, 0:17:13.760 --> 0:17:19.240 because Cockrell actually secured patents relating to his invention, although 0:17:19.320 --> 0:17:21.520 as I mentioned earlier in this episode, and we'll get 0:17:21.520 --> 0:17:23.680 back to it, there was someone else who had built 0:17:23.720 --> 0:17:28.280 something similar a decade before Cockroll did. In nineteen fifty eight, 0:17:28.880 --> 0:17:33.320 the UK government declassified his work and this gave Cockroll 0:17:33.400 --> 0:17:37.920 the chance to actually pursue funding. The UK's National Research 0:17:37.960 --> 0:17:42.600 and Development Agency or NRDA, was really impressed with his 0:17:42.760 --> 0:17:46.560 invention and they commissioned a company called Saunder's Row to 0:17:46.880 --> 0:17:50.360 build a test hovercraft based on Cockrell's design. So Sunder's 0:17:50.440 --> 0:17:54.920 Row was already an established business. It specialized in building boats, 0:17:55.359 --> 0:17:58.800 and they produced a vehicle that was called the SR 0:17:59.240 --> 0:18:02.600 in one. SR standing for Saunder's Row, and it was 0:18:02.640 --> 0:18:05.000 really only big enough to hold its own crew. It 0:18:05.040 --> 0:18:09.200 wasn't designed for passengers. But here's the thing. It did work, 0:18:09.680 --> 0:18:12.840 and on July twenty fifth, nineteen fifty nine, Saunder's Road 0:18:12.920 --> 0:18:16.919 demonstrated its capabilities by having the SR in one cross 0:18:17.040 --> 0:18:22.399 the English Channel. The hovercraft left Dover in England and 0:18:22.480 --> 0:18:26.720 landed in Calais in France. Ou La Lain. Cockrell himself 0:18:26.760 --> 0:18:29.159 was aboard of the hovercraft for this demonstration. According to 0:18:29.200 --> 0:18:34.600 The Guardian, he served as ballast very dignified. This demonstration 0:18:34.760 --> 0:18:39.480 convinced UK authorities to invest more heavily into the hovercraft technology, 0:18:39.800 --> 0:18:43.600 and the NRDA created a company called Hovercraft Development Limited 0:18:44.359 --> 0:18:48.080 with the purpose of creating hovercraft for commercial purposes such 0:18:48.119 --> 0:18:53.560 as ferrying cargo and passengers across various rivers and channels 0:18:53.600 --> 0:18:56.800 like the English Channel. The organization oversaw the work of 0:18:56.920 --> 0:19:00.000 five different companies that were all dedicated to this purpose, 0:19:00.119 --> 0:19:03.600 so there was five different boating companies that all began 0:19:03.720 --> 0:19:08.399 building hovercraft vehicles. Christopher Cockrell landed a gig as the 0:19:08.480 --> 0:19:12.159 director for Hovercraft Development Limited, and he was also the 0:19:12.240 --> 0:19:15.480 technical advisor to the company and he stayed on in 0:19:15.520 --> 0:19:19.280 that capacity until nineteen sixty six. Also in recognition of 0:19:19.320 --> 0:19:22.560 his contributions, he would ultimately receive a knighthood in nineteen 0:19:22.720 --> 0:19:25.040 sixty nine, just like his dear old dad. So you 0:19:25.040 --> 0:19:28.000 had Sir Sidney and now you had Sir Christopher. The 0:19:28.040 --> 0:19:32.760 first of the passenger hovercraft was the Vickers VA three, 0:19:32.920 --> 0:19:36.080 which was an experimental vehicle it wasn't meant to be 0:19:36.160 --> 0:19:39.359 built for full commercial use. It was more like, again 0:19:39.400 --> 0:19:43.120 a proof of concept. It launched in nineteen sixty two. 0:19:43.240 --> 0:19:47.560 British United Airways ran the service because again hovercraft were 0:19:47.840 --> 0:19:51.080 thought of as an aircraft not a boat, right, because 0:19:51.760 --> 0:19:54.199 these fans would end up creating this air cushion that 0:19:54.280 --> 0:19:59.880 made the vehicle hover, sometimes several feet above the surface 0:20:00.359 --> 0:20:03.679 that it traveled across. So as such it was more 0:20:03.720 --> 0:20:07.760 of an aircraft than a watercraft. So the initial route 0:20:08.040 --> 0:20:11.919 passed over an estuary between Liverpool and North Wales. The 0:20:11.960 --> 0:20:15.119 hovercraft would hold up to twenty four passengers per trip, 0:20:15.560 --> 0:20:18.560 and it was intended to take twelve trips per day. 0:20:19.040 --> 0:20:20.720 And like I said, this was kind of an experiment. 0:20:20.760 --> 0:20:24.159 It was a pilot program. And originally the concept was 0:20:24.160 --> 0:20:26.520 that it would go for fifty nine days and then 0:20:26.520 --> 0:20:30.000 they would evaluate does this make sense, like can we 0:20:30.680 --> 0:20:35.879 turn this into a reasonable and viable transportation option. But 0:20:36.800 --> 0:20:38.640 while it was meant to go for fifty nine days, 0:20:38.680 --> 0:20:41.199 it only made it to thirty six. The reason for 0:20:41.320 --> 0:20:46.399 that was not entirely the fault of the actual vehicle, 0:20:46.440 --> 0:20:49.760 although there were some engine problems that turned out to 0:20:49.760 --> 0:20:53.159 be a bit of an issue, and in fact that 0:20:53.160 --> 0:20:55.840 would become a thing for a lot of hovercraft. It's 0:20:55.880 --> 0:20:58.560 not that the design was bad, it's that sometimes the 0:20:58.600 --> 0:21:01.960 equipment that was being used wasn't the most reliable. The 0:21:02.040 --> 0:21:04.359 other issue was that there was a lot of bad 0:21:04.400 --> 0:21:09.119 weather during that stretch. Now I think that you should 0:21:09.160 --> 0:21:11.960 just anticipate that, because as far as I'm concerned, bad 0:21:12.000 --> 0:21:14.640 weather is kind of a constitutional requirement in the UK, 0:21:15.040 --> 0:21:18.359 at least every time I've been there. So anyway, because 0:21:18.359 --> 0:21:21.639 of this combination of issues, the experiment was cut short. 0:21:22.040 --> 0:21:25.000 The VA three would retire as a passenger vehicle, but 0:21:25.040 --> 0:21:27.840 the British government would continue to use the VA three 0:21:28.200 --> 0:21:32.520 vessel to conduct some other kinds of tests, including a 0:21:32.640 --> 0:21:36.720 very extreme one. Namely, the test they wanted to really 0:21:36.840 --> 0:21:41.560 check out was could a hovercraft pass safely over a 0:21:41.720 --> 0:21:45.360 zone in the sea that happened to be occupied by 0:21:45.440 --> 0:21:49.600 marine mines? Right? Like? These are those mines you see? 0:21:49.800 --> 0:21:52.560 You know, typically I almost only see them in things 0:21:52.600 --> 0:21:55.800 like cartoons, where it's the giant globe with lots of 0:21:55.840 --> 0:21:59.520 little pressure sensors on it that are connected by chains 0:21:59.600 --> 0:22:02.879 and anchor to the seafloor. And the ideas that a 0:22:03.000 --> 0:22:07.760 boat which will pierce the surface of the water. If 0:22:07.760 --> 0:22:10.560 it were to make contact with these would cause it 0:22:10.560 --> 0:22:13.359 to explode. Well, the thought was, well, hovercraft, they don't 0:22:13.400 --> 0:22:15.720 pierce the surface of the water, they hover above it. 0:22:16.119 --> 0:22:20.760 So is it possible that a hovercraft could safely glide 0:22:21.320 --> 0:22:25.600 over an area that is filled with marine mines and 0:22:25.640 --> 0:22:28.840 not trip them? And they tested it and the VA 0:22:28.960 --> 0:22:32.359 three done blowed up real good, which answered that question 0:22:32.480 --> 0:22:38.040 rather definitively. Passenger hovercraft would tackle the English Channels starting 0:22:38.080 --> 0:22:41.360 in nineteen sixty six, with one of the most famous 0:22:41.600 --> 0:22:46.040 being a class of hovercraft called the SRN four. Again 0:22:46.480 --> 0:22:49.120 back to the Saunders Row and this was also known 0:22:49.160 --> 0:22:52.400 as the mount Batten class of hovercraft, and the very 0:22:52.400 --> 0:22:55.480 first one that made the trip across the English Channel 0:22:55.560 --> 0:22:58.560 was called Princess Margaret. This was in nineteen sixty eight. 0:22:59.119 --> 0:23:02.440 These vessels could make the trip between England and France 0:23:02.560 --> 0:23:06.040 in about half an hour. Typically we're talking like Dover 0:23:06.160 --> 0:23:09.879 to Calais, but sometimes a different port in France. But 0:23:09.960 --> 0:23:12.719 the interesting thing is if you contrast this with the 0:23:13.000 --> 0:23:18.000 traditional ferries that were making this trip between England and France, 0:23:18.400 --> 0:23:21.479 that journey would typically take an hour and a half. 0:23:21.920 --> 0:23:26.800 So three times as long. So the fairies had some advantages, right, 0:23:26.840 --> 0:23:29.120 You could build a ferry large enough to carry much 0:23:29.160 --> 0:23:33.399 more cargo and many more passengers than your typical hovercraft could. 0:23:33.600 --> 0:23:37.359 You know, hovercraft was usually carrying around two dozen people, 0:23:37.520 --> 0:23:40.160 maybe a little bit more, and maybe like as many 0:23:40.200 --> 0:23:45.040 as twenty cars initially. With these larger hovercraft and fairies 0:23:45.080 --> 0:23:48.040 could carry much more than that. However, hovercraft could make 0:23:48.119 --> 0:23:50.159 three trips in the same amount of time that the 0:23:50.200 --> 0:23:53.640 ferry took to do one, so there was a way 0:23:53.640 --> 0:23:55.680 of you know, kind of figuring that out and balancing 0:23:55.760 --> 0:23:59.280 it between the two. For a while, hovercraft would factor 0:23:59.320 --> 0:24:04.840 into Britain's transportation infrastructure. In fact, some would call hovercraft 0:24:04.840 --> 0:24:09.280 a quintessentially British form of transportation because there were lots 0:24:09.280 --> 0:24:12.920 of places around Britain where you could grab a hovercraft 0:24:13.280 --> 0:24:16.719 to go from one port city to another, whether it 0:24:16.760 --> 0:24:19.359 was to cross a river or an estuary or a 0:24:19.440 --> 0:24:22.480 channel or whatever it might be. But as I mentioned earlier, 0:24:23.240 --> 0:24:26.040 there's some slight dispute as to whether we should even 0:24:26.119 --> 0:24:29.119 call Cockrell the father of hovercraft in the first place, 0:24:29.160 --> 0:24:33.160 and that maybe thinking of hovercraft as a really British 0:24:33.680 --> 0:24:37.680 type of technology is misleading because, as it turns out, 0:24:38.160 --> 0:24:41.800