Vickers-Armstrongs VA-3

The Vickers-Armstrongs VA-3 was the hovercraft used for the world's first passenger-carrying hovercraft service. It was the third in a line of experimental hovercraft built by Vickers-Armstrongs with Hovercraft Development Ltd, after the VA-1 of 1960 and the VA-2 of 1961. Building began in March 1961 and trials in April 1962. The craft was 55 feet 7 inches long, 27 feet wide and weighed 12 long tons, with four 425-shaft-horsepower Bristol Siddeley Turmo free-turbine engines, two driving propellers for propulsion and two driving lift fans. British United Airways ran it as the Hovercoach between Rhyl and Wallasey from 20 July to 14 September 1962, carrying 24 passengers at up to 60 knots. It was later used for military testing and deliberately sunk in the late 1960s.