Cross-Channel Hovercraft operated between various French and English ports from the mid 1960s until 2000. Carrying foot passengers and cars, the world's largest hovercraft could make the crossing between Calais and Dover in times quicker than trains through the Channel Tunnel today. However such performance of these noisy giants required perfect maritime conditions, and the slightest breeze rendered the propelled air-cushions useless. Like Concorde, the Channel Hovercraft was a relic of the sixties obsession with speed and technology, but with ageing craft, and intense competition from slower but more reliable ferry and rail operators, the dream and exhilaration of gliding along the Straits of Dover at brake-neck speeds has no place in twenty-first century travel.
Jacob Paskins
Jacob Paskins
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