X-Nico

3 unusual facts about British Hovercraft Corporation


Patrol Air Cushion Vehicle

PACV serial number 004 is the only surviving British Hovercraft Corporation-built US Navy PACV, and is currently preserved at the Bellingham International Maritime Museum.

The PACV was based on Bell Aerosystems Bell SK-5 hovercraft; a licensed version of the British Saunders-Roe (later, British Hovercraft Corporation) SR.N5 hovercraft.

SR.N3

The British Hovercraft Corporation SR.N3 was a 37.5 ton hovercraft originally designed by Saunders-Roe.


FPT Industries

Working with Saunders Roe at Cowes on the Isle of Wight, the company became so important to the hovercraft industry that the now renamed FPT Industries was bought by the British Hovercraft Corporation in 1966.

Laurence Bagley

In the early 60's when Westland began to develop the hovercraft at the Saunders-Roe site (later to become The British Hovercraft Corporation) at Cowes, Isle of Wight, he painted dozens of artists impressions of their proposed new designs.


see also