Perhaps in the future ...

This ‘flying boat’ could be the future of travel in Scotland
The Independent

Looks to be combining Ekranoplane technology with hydrofoils...

It'll never work - there are terrible dangers in hitting broken down CallMac ferries all over the Western Isles

I understand it can get a little choppy and breezy at times to and between the Hebrides. How would it be at handling rough weather? And how would the passengers inside take it? Vomit bags at the ready...

remember the Cross channel hovercraft - unless you had a window seat it was a vomit-comet

I only did that once with Hoverlloyd from Margate with parents in around 1972 but summer, so just noisy and around 45 min flying time and a bakingly hot trip across France , as we foolishly decided to have a summer holiday in Switzerland so parents came North after my school finished and we went to Interlaken and it rained for nearly 2 weeks I have never forgiven Switzerland!!
Cheers
Mr Mac

I "flew" with Hoverlloyd from Ramsgate and found it quite pleasant, not too noisy as I recall and quite smooth.

On another occasion I came back from France on a horrible French hovercraft (Wiki tells me it was an N500 Naviplane). Very uncomfortable and extremely noisy. I always thought it was a product of Nord (they of the 262 fame - another horrible piece of kit) but Wiki says it was SEDAM.

Only once on a Hover. Calais to Folkestone in January 1976, I think. It was one of those really massive British ones.

Being winter, the swells were fairly strong but widely spaced. So the machine sat down into each and then rose up the next, a lot of vertical movement. Not the smooth ride over the water as seen in adverts. Many pax were ill, I manged to survive - just. With the very uncomfortable ride and loud noise it was a simple NEVER AGAIN.

I share your memories PAXboy ... only it was a trip to Calais ..... spent the outward with eyes tightly shut and praying, and the whole of my day in Calais which was supposed to have been a birthday treat praying that the return would not be like the outward ... and this ruined the day. The return was uneventful but my reaction and subsequent travel arrangements was - and still is - NEVER AGAIN.

Do you think we were both 'in the same boat'??? (Pun intended as well as being literal!)

To start with they also had an interior cabin which had no windows - apparently EVERYONE got sick in that however strong their stomachs - some quick re-engineering was required IIRC

Sounds like some of you would quite enjoy a visit to here....which can be flown to if wished using Solent Airport (formerly Daedalus Airfield)

Hovercraft Museum

The Hovercraft Museum
Seaplane Square
Marine Parade West
Lee-on-the-Solent
Hampshire
PO13 9NS

You can climb aboard the "Princess Anne", a SR.N4 cross Channel hovercraft.....and many others from civilian and military life

Hovercraft ?? a technology that had/has limited use TBH - I suspect autonomous electric air taxis will be similar.

There is still a scheduled hovercraft service tween Ryde and Southsea, they are celebrating their 60th anniversary this year

https://www.hovertravel.co.uk/

Back when I was a kid on the IoW we took regular flights on the SR.N5 from Ryde to Southsea and in all weathers too, unlike the modern variant on the route nowadays. It was great fun on choppy days when launched by waves and being bounced about like demented jelly beans in a can. Awesome fun.

Did the biggie across the Channel several times and the original Portsmouth-Ryde on a number of occasions. No worries ever. Came back at reduced speed on the Sea Cat from Calais once when it was too rough for the Hovercraft. Was feeling slightly nauseous before I boarded, probably something I'd eaten; stood behind the bridge looking through and watching the lights at Dover going up and down as we pitched up and down - felt great, virtually everybody else aboard appeared to be storming the lavs!

Came across a pic of a derelict hovercraft in South America or somewhere, seems this had been one of the Portsmouth/Ryde SRN-6s if I recall.

I remember crossing the channel in a vintage aircraft and the hovercraft overtaking us. We had a bit of a headwind, nothing much. Later that year I managed to glom a crossing in the cockpit, which was great fun. Apparently it's classed as an aircraft for crew licences.

There used to be a hydrofoil service from Brighton to Dieppe, using Boeing Jetfoils. It was called Seajet. On a good day it was terrific, but the channel can get quite choppy, and if the waves were too high, the Seajet would fall off it's foils, and couldn't get back up. The hull was fairly round, so when that happened it used to roll like a pig until it got back into the marina. Cue many sick passengers...

I spent may times on the Hovercraft and Seacat crossings to France. I loved them, and fortunately I never suffered from travel/sea sickness. I miss them, and if they were still running, I for one, would use them.

A Seacat used to run from the Isle of Man. My mother used it a few times and liked it. I don't do water. I agree with my nephew, a pilot, "I don't trust water - I want to have solid air underneath me."

Never travelled on a hovercraft, but, have seen, and heard ! the one at Southsea.

However, when it comes to, ahem, "motion sickness" I would suggest it had a close rival.....notably a cross Channel ferry one day which "held" as it were outside Zeebrugge.....the wallowing induced a recycling of my stomach contents.

Hovercraft are supported by "solid air" underneath them. The clue is in the name :ok:

There was a very busy hovercraft route from ?Portsmouth to the Isle of Wight only a couple of years ago - I imagine they are still running. And they had some very new craft, so clearly that route is viable.

But years and years ago I remember reading - probably here on Pprune - that a single propeller blade on the older, bigger car hovercraft across the Channel cost £93,000 EACH !! So I would imagine the economics of those craft are no longer viable.