In 1960 Britten-Norman developed the early Cushioncraft with support from Elders and Fyffes Ltd. to look at methods of transporting banana crop from plantations in Southern Cameroons. Cushioncraft Ltd was formed out of the hovercraft division of Britten-Norman, in 1966 the British Hovercraft Corporation Ltd took a 20% shareholding. Britten-Norman Ltd had a shareholding in Hovertravel Ltd (now the world's oldest hovercraft transport company) of which Norman was a director since its inception in 1965.
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In 1968 he was voted off the BoardFLIGHT International supplement,20 June 1968 whilst John Britten remained on the Board. Hoverwork Ltd a subsidiary of Hovertravel occupies the former Cushioncraft facilities at Woodnutts yard, Bembridge.
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Thereafter, the business went from strength to strength using specially constructed ships that ensured the fruit arrived in good condition after the long Atlantic crossing.Davies, 1990, p. 87 In 1960, at Bembridge Airport, Isle of Wight, Britten-Norman Ltd began trials of their new Cushioncraft, their name for an air-cushion vehicle built for Elders and Fyffes. It was used to study the potential of this type of vehicle for the carriage of bananas from overseas plantations.
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The Essequibo was then traversed down to its mouth near Georgetown. The primary purpose of the expedition was filming for the BBC series "The World About Us" with the episode "The Forbidden Route" broadcast in November 1971. The secondary purpose was to demonstrate the abilities of a new type of small hovercraft, the Cushioncraft CC7, thereby promoting sales of this British invention. The expedition team comprised Bob Saunders (BBC producer and team leader), Tommy Tomlinson (CC7 pilot), Jevan Berrangé (navigator and logistics consultant), Len Chrisophers (hovercraft engineer), Peter Smith (sound recordist, and Tony Morrison (cameraman).
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In 1970, Westland Aircraft acquired the shares of the other parties, resulting in the BHC becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of Westland. In 1971, Westland successfully acquired the competing British rival Cushioncraft from Britten-Norman. British Hovercraft Corporation hangar at East Cowes During 1977, the BHC created the largest Union Flag in the world. It was painted on the doors of their hangar on the seafront at East Cowes to celebrate the Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II. In 1984, the company was renamed Westland Aerospace; around this time, design work on new hovercraft effectively ceased.
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CushionCraft CC7 hovercraft in North Savannas of Guyana during the filming of "The World About Us: The Forbidden Route". On February 26, 1971, an expedition set off by hovercraft from Manaus in Brazil where the Amazon River is joined by the Rio Negro. They followed the Negro upstream to where it is joined by the Rio Ireng that forms the border between Brazil and Guyana. After following the Ireng for a few tens of kilometers they hovered about 40 miles across the North Savannas of Guyana to the Rupununi River which they followed to it confluence with the Essequibo River at Apoteri.
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Hoverlloyd ran services from Ramsgate Harbour, England, to Calais, France, and Townsend Ferries also started a service to Calais from Dover, which was soon superseded by that of Seaspeed. As well as Saunders-Roe and Vickers (which combined in 1966 to form the British Hovercraft Corporation (BHC)), other commercial craft were developed during the 1960s in the UK by Cushioncraft (part of the Britten-Norman Group) and Hovermarine based at Woolston (the latter being sidewall hovercraft, where the sides of the hull projected down into the water to trap the cushion of air with normal hovercraft skirts at the bow and stern). One of these models, the HM-2, was used by Red Funnel between Southampton (near the Woolston Floating Bridge) and Cowes. The Hoverlloyd SR.N4 craft Swift GH-2004 on the pad at Pegwell Bay Hoverport, 1973 The world's first car-carrying hovercraft was made in 1968, the BHC Mountbatten class (SR.N4) models, each powered by four Bristol Proteus turboshaft engines. These were both used by rival operators Hoverlloyd and Seaspeed (joined to form Hoverspeed in 1981) to operate regular car and passenger carrying services across the English Channel. Hoverlloyd operated from Ramsgate, where a special hoverport had been built at Pegwell Bay, to Calais.
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