Hello.
This is my 3rd blog for my genius hour on hovercrafts. This blog will be on the history of hovercrafts in the Late 1950's-1960's. After the prototype of the SR.N1, in 1958 Christopher Cockerell and Saunders Roe made more hovercrafts. They made the SR.N1 Mk II, Mk III and Mk IV. The SR.N1 designs worked except they couldn't be classified as "Hovercrafts" as they were too close to the water when they were used. The solution was easily solved with the help of Cecil Latimer-Needham, following a suggestion made by his business partner Arthur Ord-Hume in 1958. He suggested to put two rings of rubber to produce a double-walled extension of the vents in the lower fuselage. Doing this resulted is the hovercraft achieving extra space above the water. Latimer and Christopher devised a 4 foot skirt for the SR.N1 Mk V This resulted in the hovercraft to be able to hop over waves and other possible objects easier. A few years later in 1961 Latimer sold his skirt ideas to Westland, a British aircraft manufacturer.