Saunders Roe SRN-8

When the SRN-4 Mountbatten class hovercraft entered passenger service in 1968 for the Dover Calais route it was a big success and soon investigations began in an even bigger hovercraft. One of the designs considered was a “Double SRN-4” which had twice the length and twice the width of the SRN-4.

This design was called the SRN-8 and in the early 1970s it was an initial production run of 6 craft was started for the route from Harwich to Hoek of Holland in the Netherlands. The first passenger carrying crossing was carried out in 1976 and this started a very successful career of the SRN-8.

In 1991 the six SRN-8s on the Channel route were bought by Virgin, forming Virgin HoverTrans which operated the service until 2003, when the last SRN-8 was retired. The SRN-8 was powered by eight 4,000 shp Rolls-Royce Proteus Gas turbines, driving 8 propellers. It could carry  up to 200 cars and 1500 passengers. 

Model: 2 x Airfix SRN-4 1/144