Established 1988 Website Hovercraft Museum | Type Maritime museum Phone +44 23 9255 2090 | |
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Location Building 40, Daedalus Site,
Argus Gate, Chalk Lane,
Lee-on-Solent, Hants PO13 9JY
United Kingdom Collection size 60 full size craft
Hovercraft archive and library Address The Hovercraft Museum, Daedalus Site Seafront Gate, Marine Parade West, Lee-on-the-Solent PO13 9NS, United Kingdom Similar Little Woodham, Diving Museum, Explosion! Museum of Naval Fir, HMS Alliance, Royal Navy Submarine Museum Profiles | ||
The hovercraft museum
The Hovercraft Museum, located in Lee-on-the-Solent in Hampshire, England, is a museum run by a registered charity dedicated to hovercraft.
Contents
The museum has a large 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, one of which is fully operational. The collection currently contains one of the last two remaining SR.N4 craft, the world's largest civil hovercraft which have been laid up here since their retirement from cross-Channel services 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.