Cockerell, Sir Christopher

Cockerell, Sir Christopher (1910-1999), engineer, b. Cambridge, England.

Christopher Cockerell bought a boatyard on the Norfolk Broads in 1950.

While designing boats there, he had the idea of riding them on a cushion of air. As a result, he invented the hovercraft.

He took out patents in 1958 and the first full-scale hovercraft was on view at Cowes, Isle of Wight, in June 1959.

Services crossing the English Channel were opened nine years later with the 150-ton SRN 4 Mountbatten class hovercraft.

See Garry Hogg The hovercraft story