Griffon Hoverwork receive Special Achievement Award 2024 from The Hovercraft Society

The Hovercraft Society has made this award in recognition of delivery of the three GH 12000 passenger hovercraft to Oita Prefecture in Japan this year, together with a significant training and support programme.

There are three hovercraft events over the next month or so that may interest visitors to this site.
These are globally distributed events that are the ideal way to find out more about light hovercraft in the USA and Europe! All these events’ organisers are proud to welcome visitors, so long as they have contact in advance so can plan for it!
The first is in Boulogne, France on 10/11th August – a celebration of fifty years since the Boulogne Hoverport was opened for high-speed travel between Boulogne and Dover.
The second is the Hoverclub of America Muscoda, Wisconsin Hover-in weekend at Victoria Park also 09/11th August
The third is in Saalburg, Germany from 28th August to 1st September. This is the 2024 World Hovercraft Racing Championship meeting.

A brief update with a focus on the energy transition.

The first quarter of this year has been a significant period for ACV and SES with the completion of the Oita hover ferry delivery and training period, and just recently the partnership agreement between ESNA and Strategic Marine.
Right now, Griffon Hoverwork and ESNA are busy with engineering and design work which will stretch through this year and more on new projects. UMOE also have the next stage of their hydrogen fuel cell SES to complete following approval in principle from DNV.
The ‘energy transition’ is providing major challenges, for the designs as such, and rising costs, while the demand side of the market pushes for the transition.

I have just checked the last time a blog like this was posted and found that it was May 2023. Rather a long pause. During 2024 let’s hope it is possible to keep up a more regular blog that site visitors can see and get a feel for what is going on in the world of Air Cushion Technology.
In this issue of the Visitors News I update you a little and aim to get into a more regular posting during the coming months.

Up until now the focus has been on preparing the News Notes for members, meetings on Zoom that are posted to THS YouTube channel, and loading technical papers and conference materials all to the members part of the site.
We have invited non-members to presentation events, as you can see from the Visitor events menu item so there has been some attention to a wider audience. There is also a quantity of material available in the open library on the library tab.
So far the open ‘News Blog’ has not been a regular item. Starting with this post it is hoped to make it a little more regular and informative, for both members and non-members!
First, a taste of what is in the latest (May 2023) News Note issued to members by email, and available on the site once a member is logged in.

Four films have been added to the THS YouTube library, as follows:

– Apethorpe Rally 1966 HCGB (11:47)
– Rallying in 1968 HCGB (9:30)
– Rallies 1968 Combo HCGB (29:41)
– Film from Bob Windt 1971 (5:46)

These are all films digitised from 8 and Super8 film that has been in the Bliault ‘Archive’ for several decades.
At that time personal or amateur hovercraft were developing mostly by individual experiment and are a contrast with the aeronautical technology being applied at that time at Saunders Roe, HDL, Vickers, and Vosper.