Hovercraft Service This Year
Page 39
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THE world's first scheduled Hovercraft
service is planned to start this summer. It will be operated across the Dee estuary between Rhyl, N.'Wales, and Hoylake, Cheshire, to a strict timetable, using a 24-seat Vickers-Arrnstrongs VA-3 Supermarine craft, the operation being planned jointly by Vickers and British United Airways. Backed by the National Research Development Council and Hovercraft Development, Ltd., the service will be a short-term one.
The VA-3 will take 20 minutes for the 15-mile journey, compared with the If 2 hours of existing bus services whieh are routed round the wide estuary, a distance of about 40 miles. Hovercraft fares will be about El single and E2 return.
The 60 m.p.h. VA-3 Hovercraft, powered by four Blackburn Turmo 603 gas turbines, is due to start tests shortly, and a full proving programme has been agreed with the Air Registration Board arid the Ministry of Aviation who are " in close consultation on the licensing both of the vehicle and the service."
Meanwhile it is learned that, contrary to earlier reports, the Southdown company have not yet made a decision about the type of hover vehicle to be employed on their projected coastal services, reported recently in this journal.
(See Licensing Casebook, pages 235-6-)