The hovercraft is questioned a lot on whether it is a boat or a plane. It can travel across land and water on a cushion of air. Because the hovercraft travels on a cushion of air it does not experience drag, a slowing effect from the water. This makes the hovercraft faster than ships. One hovercraft, the SR.N4, had an average speed of 56 knots. How a hovercraft works it that it has gas turbine engines that power propellers on top of the hovercraft, and the engines also drive four huge fans that whirl around more than 500 times a minute to create the air cushion under the hovercraft. The air pushes the hovercraft up and the propellers allow the hovercraft to move forward.

1716-

Emmanual Swedenborg was the first person to design the hovercraft, but his hovercraft was never built. Swedenborg had designed his hovercraft to be powered by a single person, and the hovercraft needed much more energy than a single person could supply.

1950s-

Christopher Cockerrell figured out how to make the hovercraft work. He proved his theory by taking a coffee tin, inserting a cat food tin inside it, and blowing air between the two tins. A real hovercraft has gas turbine engines that power propellers on top of the hovercraft, and the engines also drive four huge fans that whirl around more than 500 times a minute to create the air cushion under the hovercraft. After a lot of hard work trying to make the hovercraft a reality, Cockerrell design was put to the test. June 11, 1959 the first hovercraft, Saunders Roe Nautical One (SR.N1), was tested over land and then water. It was a successful flight and the hovercraft crossed the English Channel.

Info found at: http://www.hover.globalinternet.co.uk/years.html