The hovercraft has been discussed and designed as a form of transport since the first known designs came to be in the 18th century. The Swedish designer and philosopher Emanuel Swedenborg is credited with the first designs for a version of the hovercraft that resembled an upside down boat with a central cockpit powered by human energy in 1716. British designer Sir John Isaac Thornycroft continued the development of the hovercraft throughout the 1870s in an attempt to create an area of air between the vehicle and water. American designer Colonel Meliville W. Beardsley and Dr. W. Bertelsen worked on the science of developing the hovercraft in the 20th century.
Sir Christopher Cockerell developed his version of the hovercraft by forcing air through two cylindrical cans attached to the motor from a vacuum cleaner. This experiment led Cockerell to develop plans for a vehicle suspended on a cushion of air blown from beneath the vehicle. To allow the vehicle to travel on relatively smooth surfaces, such as sloping firm ground, swamps, marshes, water and ice, Cockerell developed a peripheral jet system that pushed air beneath the vehicle.
The patents filed by Sir Christopher Cockerell were accepted in 1955, causing a delay in production as the project was deemed of national interest to the military of the U.K. Working with the Royal Navy allowed Cockerell to refine the design of the hovercraft, by adding a skirt to contain the air forced beneath the vehicle to form a continuous cushion of air credited to Royal Navy personnel. The initial commercial production of the hovercraft was delayed until 1959 when prototypes were displayed in public as the vehicle crossed the English Channel.
Commercial development of the hovercraft has continued since the prototypes of the hovercraft were displayed. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, French designer Jean Bertin developed a land-based hovercraft called the Aerotrain that broke the air cushioned vehicle land-based speed record by reaching a top speed of 267 miles per hour. British aeronautical manufacturers Saunders Roe and Vickers developed commercially available hovercrafts, which were used as ferries that carried passengers along the Welsh coast. Passenger applications included a passenger service that crossed the English Channel.
