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Aviation History
1964
1964 - 1621.PDF
Air-Cushion Vehicles FLIGHT International supplement, 28 May 1964 The Russian Delegation whichvisited the UK recently is seen below boarding the West land SR.N2at Lee-on-Solent for a trip to Cowes, where the craft wearing her new4ft flexible skirt) is seen on the right coming up the ramp INTERNATIONAL NEWS Across the Solent by N2 A half-hourly experimental passenger service across the Solent is to be oper- ated by the Westland SR.N2 between Southsea, Hants, and Ryde, IoW, from June 15 to September 4. Eleven trips will be run daily, expect at weekends, and the six-mile trip will take about 12min. The single fare will be 10s. Operating the service will be the new company Hover Transport Ltd, the formation of which was announced in the March Air-Cushion Vehicles. Hover Transport has been formed jointly by Britten-Norman Ltd; the Bristol Chan- nel ferry operators P. & A. Campbell Ltd; and Hovercraft Developments Ltd. Hover Transport is chartering the SR.N2 from Westland. Portsmouth Corporation's parks and entertainments committee approved the plan last month, after it had been approved in principle by Ryde Council the previous week. The purpose is "to gain experience of operating over a fairly long period," Mr R. B. Tweed, a Portsmouth Corporation solicitor, told the committee. He added that the com- pany had asked that there should be no charge since "at the moment, it is to some extent a national experiment, and no profit is expected." It seems that this plea was too high- minded for Portsmouth's councillors, for the committee decided that "negotiations should be sought with the company" for a ten per cent share of the takings. A proposal that it should be ten per cent of the profits, if any, was promptly defeated. Air-Cushion Vehicles under- stand, however, that Hover Transport has not agreed to the committee's proposals. Terminal points of the service, which is a forerunner of fully viable passenger and vehicle ferries across the Solent which it is hoped to start in 1967, will be the beach near Eastney Barracks, Southsea, and Appley Beach, east of Ryde. Up to 50 passengers will be carried at one time. Special Directors at Cowes It is announced by Westland Aircraft Ltd that Mr E. F. Gilberthorpe, MiMectiE, MiprodE, MBIM and Mr R. Stanton Jones, MA, DCAe, have been appointed special directors of Westland Aircraft Ltd. Mr Gilberthorpe and Mr Stanton Jones, who will continue to act in their respective capacities of general manager and chief designer at West- land'.s Saunders-Roe Division, are con- cerned with the hovercraft side of West- land's activities, and also supervise work in the rocket, electronics, strain gauge and hydrodynamic test fields. As general manager, Mr Gilberthorpe was concerned with the production of SR.N3, the world's largest ACV, and SR.N5, the first to go into full-scale production. Dick Stanton Jones is well known for the part he played in bringing to fruition the designs that resulted in SR.N1, the world's first hovercraft— and of developing the theme to the stage where SR.N2, claimed to be the first practical large passenger hovercraft, was designed and launched. He was also responsible for the designs of the SR.N3, the SR.N5, and the new large 150-ton channel ferry project, the SR.N4. Eric Francis Gilberthorpe was edu- cated at the Derby College of Technology Below, Mr E. F. Gilberthorpe (left) and Mr R. Stanton Jones
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