the.com/hovercraft
a machine that solved being stuck by simply refusing to touch the ground.
means A vehicle that rides on a cushion of air blown downward by powerful fans, letting it skim over land, water, and swamp without actually touching the surface.
from A transparent English compound of "hover" + "craft," coined in the mid-20th century for the new air-cushion vehicles pioneered by British engineer Christopher Cockerell. "Hover" is an old English word, related to "hove," meaning to linger or float in place; "craft" in the sense of a boat or vessel is centuries older, from Old English "cræft" (skill, power) — the same root that gives us "aircraft." So the name literally promises a vessel that hangs suspended, exactly as the machine does.
- inventor
- Christopher Cockerell tested the idea with two tin cans
- terrain
- crosses land, water, ice, and mud equally
- channel
- once ferried cars across the English Channel
- the cushion
- rides on a trapped pocket of pressurized air
- steering
- famously awful, since nothing actually grips anything
srnbp 4 cross-channel ferry — operated between england and france 1968-2000, carried 65,000+ passengers annually at peak
military hovercraft lcac — us navy landing craft air cushion, deployed since 1987, carries 60-ton loads across water and land
british srnbp 6 — world's largest passenger hovercraft, operated 1968-1995 between uk and france carrying 418 passengers