Air-cushion vehicles had a much longer history than their postwar fame suggests. Concepts ran from Emanuel Swedenborg in 1716 and John Isaac Thornycroft's nineteenth-century patent to the first air-cushion boat built in 1915. That craft combined several engines, submerged propellers, and a fan that trapped air under the bow once it was moving, reducing friction and smoothing its ride. American work by Ford engineer Andrew Kucher and Charles Fletcher followed, alongside Finnish and Soviet designs in the 1930s. The Soviet invasion of Finland deprived one project of support, while World War II halted Soviet development. Christopher Cockerell's later work helped turn the idea into the familiar hovercraft, but the long experimental lineage explains why the technology came close to wartime use.
Chapter · 27:12-30:33
Hovercraft just miss the amphibious war
The hovercraft case traces air-cushion craft from early concepts and experiments to development programs interrupted by World War II.