British Hovercraft Company

The British Hovercraft Company (BHC) is the world’s largest manufacturer of recreational and small commercial hovercraft.

The company want to transform their factory into a centre of excellence, designing and building the most innovative, sophisticated, and highest performing hovercraft on the market.

Central to this vision is an ambition to bring the world’s first sustainable electric hovercraft to market.

Embedding new capabilities

The company is working with our South East Hub, the University of Brighton, as part of a Knowledge Transfer Partnership.

The partnership will embed scientifically informed design and manufacturing processes into the business, enabling the team to develop a first-to-market electric hovercraft.

Access to world-leading expertise and facilities

BHC are working with an academic team based at the University’s Advanced Engineering Centre (AEC). The AEC is an internationally recognised centre of research excellence. It hosts cutting-edge facilities that are used to tackle the most pressing engineering challenges and keep the UK at the forefront of the design and development of low carbon innovation.

James Halligan, Managing Director of the British Hovercraft Company, said:

“We believe that the KTP partnership with Brighton University will help us create a sustainable future for the manufacture of hovercraft in the UK for the foreseeable future, by taking a product invented in the 20th Century, and systemising the design and manufacture of this extraordinary craft, with the help of some of the best minds in the UK.”