Hovercraft Geeks ahoy! 56k beware!

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16 Dec 2004
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Isle of Wight
Thought I would share these pictures, people who like hovercraft may find them interesting. Me and My dad do because we are geeks :D.

They are shots of Hovertravels new BHT 130 hovercraft ariving at Ryde on the Isle of Wight for her sea trials. The BHT130 is the first Hovercraft designed and built purely by Hovertravel, so its great to see it almost ready to go. Here are a few geeky stats for you all:

-Its called solent express
-Room for 130 passengers
-amphibious naturally .
-Powered by 4 diesel engines, 2 for lift 2 for the props
-Has gull wing doors like a delorean
-Allowed to go 45 knots with passengers but capable of over 60
-When in service will have emergency map and lifejacket information made by me yay.
-20 ton payload - double that of the old craft

On the pad:
bht1304.jpg


On current hovercraft looking over to ryde, solent express is on the right, way bigger than the old AP188 on the left
bht1330.jpg


Pad jammed with hovercraft, the two old ap188's are closet the camera.
bht1303.jpg


BHT130's huge props dwarfing the ap188's old ones.
bht1302.jpg


May well be some "action" shots when they start the trials proper.
 
I like hovercraft, they seem too zany to be cost-effective but they clearly aren't. Can you still cross the channel/Irish sea on those things?
 
No, Hoverspeed decided for some strange reason to can the hovercraft. Despite the craft being good for another 15 years, and the fact they made a profit and the fact it was super fast.
 
Tomdun said:
No, Hoverspeed decided for some strange reason to can the hovercraft.

Because they are the most inefficient vehicle ever, arnt they? (excluding hummers? :p)
 
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