Saunders-Roe SR.N5

The Saunders-Roe SR.N5, also called the Warden class, was a medium-sized hovercraft that first flew in 1964 and has the distinction of being the first production-built hovercraft in the world. It followed the experimental SR.N1, developed with Christopher Cockerell, and was an early production craft designed primarily for passenger service with an improved skirt of fingers and forward puff ports. Construction of the first began in 1963 and it made its first flight on 11 April 1964. The SR.N5 was powered by a single marinised Bristol Gnome turboshaft engine driving a rear-facing four-bladed variable-pitch propeller and a centrifugal lift fan. It became the first commercially successful hovercraft, placed on routes around the world, and four entered service with the Interservice Hovercraft Trials Unit. A total of 14 were constructed, and a single intact example is preserved at the Hovercraft Museum at Lee-on-the-Solent.