We used that hovercraft every year to drive to Portugal. Really fond memories. On one occasion, the sea was actually quite choppy and passengers were sick all around me. And we used to go over the Goodwin Sands - a huge sand bank off the coast - and you could see the masts of an old shipwreck. The best sensation was at the start when the whole craft rose and then skidded down the beach towards the sea.
Great footage and memories - amazing machines! I stood on the roof of the Hoverport (viewing platform) as a teenager and saw the very same view a number of times and heard the raw of those four engines. fantastic!
Travelled as a chiid in the 70s and didnt go back for nearly 40 years until quite by accident I found myself at the Viking ship Drawn to a gap in the hedge, I followed a path that led down to a large abandoned car park. The whole place felt so familiar but I couldnt understand why until I came across the ramps and then it dawned on me where I was. I visited the hovercraft museum later that summer and sat in the cockpit of SWIFT (?) wearing the same orange period headphones as the pilots in the video. Almost got involved in arranging to transport one of the cockpits to a newly refurbished port in France as a favour but alas, the large multinational company I was working for was not interested and there ended my own personal history with the hovercraft.
I went down a few years ago, it's very sad. All cracked concrete and tarmac with plants sprouting through, hints of pavement/road markings and the big ramps... It's a shame if nothing else that the facilities weren't reused in some way to keep bringing value to the area
We used that hovercraft every year to drive to Portugal. Really fond memories. On one occasion, the sea was actually quite choppy and passengers were sick all around me. And we used to go over the Goodwin Sands - a huge sand bank off the coast - and you could see the masts of an old shipwreck. The best sensation was at the start when the whole craft rose and then skidded down the beach towards the sea.
Great footage and memories - amazing machines!
I stood on the roof of the Hoverport (viewing platform) as a teenager and saw the very same view a number of times and heard the raw of those four engines. fantastic!
Travelled as a chiid in the 70s and didnt go back for nearly 40 years until quite by accident I found myself at the Viking ship
Drawn to a gap in the hedge, I followed a path that led down to a large abandoned car park.
The whole place felt so familiar but I couldnt understand why until I came across the ramps and then it dawned on me where I was.
I visited the hovercraft museum later that summer and sat in the cockpit of SWIFT (?) wearing the same orange period headphones as the pilots in the video.
Almost got involved in arranging to transport one of the cockpits to a newly refurbished port in France as a favour but alas, the large multinational company I was working for was not interested and there ended my own personal history with the hovercraft.
Never went on the Ramsgate Hovercraft but did ride on the Dover one. Consider myself very lucky.
Worked Thomas Cook exchange bureau there..summer 1971/2..good times.Maybe that inspired me to aviator career!
Das war ein tolles Erlebnis wie wir damals unsere Verwandtschaft in Großbritannien besuchten
Shame, there was no sound.
Pegwell Bay doesn't look like that anymore..
I went down a few years ago, it's very sad. All cracked concrete and tarmac with plants sprouting through, hints of pavement/road markings and the big ramps... It's a shame if nothing else that the facilities weren't reused in some way to keep bringing value to the area
With all this modern technology. Why cant we design and make an economical hovercraft , bring them back,
Sea cavalry