Encyclopedia

Christopher Sydney Cockerell (1910–1999) was a British engineer whose inventive curiosity led to the creation of the hovercraft, a vehicle that glides on a cushion of air. Educated at Cambridge, he began his career in radio engineering before turning to marine design. In the early 1950s, Cockerell demonstrated his air‑cushion principle using tin cans and a vacuum cleaner, proving that air pressure could lift and propel a craft over land or water.