Mountbatten Class SR.N4 Hovercraft

When I was a child my family used to go on long holidays driving in Europe with my father's 1969 VW Type 2 camper van (I have built a LEGO version of our camper van too but I don’t think it’s ready for LEGO Ideas yet). For every trip we took between 1974 and 1981, we used the Hoverlloyd hovercraft operating from Ramsgate / Pegwell Bay to Calais. We flew on all four of the Hoverlloyd hovercraft through the years and each of us in the family had our favourite craft.

For my entire childhood I used a Hoverlloyd branded plastic shopping bag to keep my LEGO set instruction books in. On four of our trips we visited Denmark and of course stopped for a day at Legoland in Billund (at that time I think it was the only Legoland park in the world).

So in my mind; LEGO, Hoverlloyd hovercraft and European travel are all permanently and inextricably linked. When I think of LEGO I think of our trips to Legoland and that plastic Hoverlloyd bag full of old LEGO instruction books - that of course brings my mind round to the SR.N4 hovercraft. Amazing really that I left it this long before building a hovercraft in LEGO!

Before one of our family holidays I wrote to Hoverlloyd in advance and asked if I could visit the cockpit during my upcoming trip. Hoverlloyd replied positively and in the end I was allowed to spend the entire voyage in the control cabin of "The Prince of Wales"; helping out with the pre-flight checks, sitting in the co-pilot's seat and even taking control for a few minutes towards the end of the voyage (the sea was flat calm so not too big a problem for a 9-year-old to be at the controls).

Towards the end of my time in the cockpit and nearing arrival at Calais, the Captain directed my attention to a control unit down low at the right hand side of the co-pilot's seat, and asked me to flick the third switch along from the left. At the time I had no idea what the switch was for, but from a recent visit to the Hovercraft Museum in Lee-on-the-Solent (UK) and one of the salvaged SR.N4 cockpits it seems this was the VHF radio control, presumably for calling Calais port as part of the arrival formalities. On leaving the hovercraft I was given a postcard signed by the 3 flight officers.

However as I became an adult the end of the SR.N4 era was looming and the last commercial SR.N4 hovercraft flight was in 2000. It makes me quite sad to see that these technological marvels of the 1960s - known at the time as the 'Concorde of the seas' in a link with the supersonic aircraft of the same name - have been almost forgotten by people today. One by one the craft were broken up for various reasons and it has only been through the dedication and focus of a hardy band of volunteers at the Hovercraft Museum in Lee-on-the-Solent that one solitary SR.N4 has been preserved for posterity.

These experiences cemented in my mind the idea of hovercraft and especially the SR.N4. These hovercraft will always hold a very special place in my heart and when I hope that with this LEGO Ideas submission that the SR.N4 will be remembered and respected as an important piece of transport history.