Page "Christopher Cockerell" Paragraph 10

He tested his theories using a vacuum cleaner and two tin cans.

His hypothesis was found to have potential, but the idea took some years to develop, and he was forced to sell personal possessions in order to finance his research.

By 1955, he had built a working model from balsa wood and had filed his first patent for the hovercraft, No 854211.

Cockerell had found it impossible to interest the private sector in developing his idea, as both the aircraft and the ship building industries saw it as lying outside their core business.

He therefore approached the British Government with a view to interesting them in possible defence applications.