Hovercraft Museum

50.80759°N 1.20974°W / 50.80759; -1.20974

Hovercraft Museum
Mark 3 SR.N4, The Princess Margaret, was dismantled for scrap at Lee-on-Solent in March 2018
Established1988
LocationBuilding 40, Daedalus Site,
Argus Gate, Chalk Lane,
Lee-on-Solent, Hants PO13 9JY
England
TypeMaritime museum
Collection size60 full size craft
Hovercraft archive and library
Websitewww.hovercraft-museum.org

The Hovercraft Museum, in Lee-on-the-Solent, Hampshire, England is a museum run by a registered charity dedicated to hovercraft.[1]

The museum has a collection of over 60 hovercraft of various designs. Situated at HMS Daedalus by the large slipway from where many hovercraft have been tested, the museum collection includes SR.N5 and SR.N6 hovercraft. The collection also contains the last remaining SR.N4 craft, the world's largest civil hovercraft, which has been laid up in Lee-on-the-Solent since cross-Channel services ceased on 1 October 2000.

The museum houses the world's largest library of documents, publications, film, video, photographs and drawings on hovercraft, all of which is available for research by prior arrangement. A number of hovercraft manufacturers have deposited their complete archives with the museum for safekeeping, thus swelling this important repository of information.

The museum also contains a large collection of original manufacturers' hovercraft models including the world's first working hovercraft model built by Christopher Cockerell.

The museum reopened in January 2016 after being closed for essential structural building work over nearly two years. Shortly afterwards the remaining SR.N4 craft came under threat of scrapping when the site owners, the Homes and Communities Agency, proposed the redevelopment of the land. The museum trust started a petition calling for one of the craft to be preserved.[2]

In October 2023 The Hovercraft Museum achieved Arts Council England Accreditation, joining more than 1700 museums also taking part in the scheme.[3]

Notes and references
  1. "The Hovercraft Museum Trust, registered charity no. 1003689". Charity Commission for England and Wales.
  2. "Petition to save last cross-Channel hovercraft". BBC. 30 January 2016. Retrieved 13 February 2016.
  3. "The Hovercraft Museum Achieves Arts Council Accreditation". The Hovercraft Museum Trust. 22 October 2023. Retrieved 22 October 2023.
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