The hovercraft was first invented by China, but for the sake of confidentiality, it was not announced to the world. It was later invented by British engineer Cochrane. From 65438 to 0950, Cochrane, 40, fell in love with shipbuilding. So I quit my old job and started a small shipbuilding company with my wife with all my savings. At this time, Cochrane's mind was thinking about how to build a faster ship. He believes that the reason for the low speed of the ship is the resistance caused by the friction between the bottom of the ship and the water surface. After repeated research, he found that if air is used as the "air cushion" between the ship and the water, it is possible to reduce friction and thus improve the speed of the ship. Cochrane embodied the idea. He put an empty coffee can on an empty cat food can and used a hair dryer as the power to carry out the experiment. As a result, he was very satisfied with the effect of exhaust lifting. Then he made a model boat about 0.5 meters long and did experiments in the river, which succeeded again. Its principle is exactly the same as that of the current practical hovercraft.
At this time, Cochrane was ready to sell his inventions to entrepreneurs, but they were all rejected. The reason is interesting. The ship manufacturer thinks it is an airplane rather than a ship. However, hals Paley, the general manager of British R&D company, has a unique insight and foresees the importance of hovercraft, which helps Cochrane to obtain the patent right. At that time, Cochrane joined NEDC Company and began to formally manufacture hovercraft with a length of 9. 1 m and a width of 7.3 m.. This hovercraft successfully crossed the English Channel and became the first truly sailing hovercraft in the world. It also fully shows the superiority of hovercraft.