Editing Hovercraft (section)

===Commercialisation===
[[File:Hovercraft-MVPP10.jpg|thumb|Passenger-carrying hovercraft, offshore from [[Ōita Airport]] in Japan]]

Through these improvements, the hovercraft became an effective transport system for high-speed service on water and land, leading to widespread developments for military vehicles, search and rescue, and commercial operations. By 1962, many UK aviation and shipbuilding firms were working on hovercraft designs, including Saunders Roe/[[Westland Aircraft|Westland]], [[Vickers-Armstrongs|Vickers-Armstrong]], [[William Denny and Brothers|William Denny]], [[Britten-Norman]] and [[Folland Aircraft|Folland]].<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1961/1961%20-%201424.html |title=Hovercraft: New Generations Ahead |journal=Flight International |date=1961-10-05 |page=528 |access-date=2010-01-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120622083813/http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1961/1961%20-%201424.html |archive-date=2012-06-22 |url-status=live}}</ref> Small-scale ferry service started as early as 1962 with the launch of the Vickers-Armstrong VA-3. With the introduction of the 254 passenger and 30 car carrying [[SR.N4]] cross-channel ferry by [[Hoverlloyd]] and [[Seaspeed]] in 1968, hovercraft had developed into useful commercial craft.

[[File:Demonstratie met Britse hovercraft op het IJsselmeer Weeknummer, 76-22 - Open Beelden - 55618.ogv|thumb|Hovercraft in the Netherlands, newsreel from 1976]]

Another major pioneering effort of the early hovercraft era was carried out by [[Jean Bertin]]'s firm in France. Bertin was an advocate of the "multi-skirt" approach, which used a number of smaller cylindrical skirts instead of one large one in order to avoid the problems noted above. During the early 1960s he developed a series of prototype designs, which he called "terraplanes" if they were aimed for land use, and "naviplanes" for water. The best known of these designs was the [[N500 Naviplane]], built for Seaspeed by the ''Société d'Etude et de Développement des Aéroglisseurs Marins'' (SEDAM). The N500 could carry 400 passengers, 55 cars and five buses. It set a speed record between Boulogne and Dover of {{convert|74|kn|km/h|abbr=on}}. It was rejected by its operators, who claimed that it was unreliable.<ref>{{cite web |title=Aérotrain et Naviplanes - L'histoire de la SEDAM et des Naviplanes |work=Aérotrain et Naviplanes |url=http://aernav.free.fr/Naviplane/Histo_Navi.html |url-status=live |access-date=2006-07-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927205620/http://aernav.free.fr/Naviplane/Histo_Navi.html |archive-date=2011-09-27}}</ref>

[[File:Hivus-48 hovercraft working at Nizhniy Novgorod-Bor crossing.jpg|thumb|Russian-built Aerohod A48 hovercraft with passengers]]

Another discovery was that the total amount of air needed to lift the craft was a function of the roughness of the surface over which it travelled. On flat surfaces, like pavement, the required air pressure was so low that hovercraft were able to compete in energy terms with conventional systems like steel wheels. However, the hovercraft lift system acted as both a lift and a very effective suspension, and thus it naturally lent itself to high-speed use where conventional suspension systems were considered too complex. This led to a variety of "[[hovertrain]]" proposals during the 1960s, including England's [[Tracked Hovercraft]] and France's ''[[Aérotrain]]''. In the U.S., [[Rohr Inc.]] and [[Garrett AiResearch|Garrett]] both took out licences to develop local versions of the ''Aérotrain''. These designs competed with [[Maglev (transport)|maglev]] systems in the high-speed arena, where their primary advantage was the very "low tech" tracks they needed. On the downside, the air blowing dirt and trash out from under the trains presented a unique problem in stations, and interest in them waned in the 1970s.

By the early 1970s, the basic concept had been well developed, and the hovercraft had found a number of niche roles where its combination of features were advantageous. Today, they are found primarily in military use for amphibious operations, search-and-rescue vehicles in shallow water, and sporting vehicles.