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SR.N2

first hovercraft to operate a commercial service

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 29, 2026
Entity authorityQ7392768 ↗
Source-derived summary

The SR.N2 was a hovercraft built by Westland and Saunders-Roe. It first flew in 1961. It weighed 27 tons and could carry 48 passengers. Although only one was built it is regarded as the prototype for commercial hovercraft, following on from the SR.N1 research craft. It was demonstrated on the Saint Lawrence River, Canada in 1962 and operated by P & A Campbell as a ferry crossing the Bristol Channel between Weston-super-Mare and Penarth in 1963. It was then fitted with deeper (4 ft) skirts to improve its performance in rough seas. Southdown Motor Services and Westland Aircraft ran the SR.N2 on the Solent between Eastney and Ryde in 1963/4, carrying 30,000 passengers. It was eventually broken up.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “SR.N2” as first hovercraft to operate a commercial service. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around first, hovercraft and operate.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1961, 1962, 1963—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with first, hovercraft and operate providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “SR.N2”, the useful work is to connect “first hovercraft to operate a commercial service” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7392768. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1961, 1962 and 1963.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  2. Expand the search: follow SR.N2 primary sources, SR.N2 archive and first research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “SR.N2” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.