Christopher Cockerell

Sir Christopher Sydney Cockerell CBE FRS (June 4, 1910 – June 1, 1999) was an English engineer, inventor of the hovercraft.

Life

Cockerell was born in Cambridge, United Kingdom, where his father, Sir Sydney Cockerell, was curator of the Fitzwilliam Museum, having previously been the secretary of William Morris. Christopher Cockerell was educated at Gresham's School, Holt. He then entered Cambridge University, England, as an undergraduate member of Peterhouse, and where he studied engineering and was tutored by William Dobson Womersley. He began his career working for the Marconi company in 1935, and got married soon afterwards. He worked on radar systems during the Second World War.

Cockerell was knighted in 1969 for his services to engineering. He died at Hythe in Hampshire.

The hovercraft

Cockerell's greatest invention, the hovercraft, grew out of work he began in 1953. He tested his theories using a hair-dryer and tin cans and found his working hypothesis to have potential, but the idea took some years to develop, and he was forced to sell personal possessions in order to finance his research. By 1955, he had built a working model from balsa wood and had taken out his first patent. In 1959, he launched a prototype craft called the 'SRN1', capable of carrying four men at a speed of 28 miles per hour, and it made a successful crossing of the English Channel between Dover and Calais on the 25th July 1959.

References

External links

• Information about Sir Christopher at the Hovercraft Museum website
• hovercraftsomerleyton.org.uk Detail of commemorative events at the birthplace of the Hovercraft including The Hovercraft Column at Somerleyton in Suffolk.
• Christopher Cockerell profile at findagrave.com
• Christopher Cockerell at About.com