In 1955, while working to reduce the friction between a boat’s hull and the water it traveled through, Cockerell came up with the idea of the hovercraft. His first model was made out of tin cans powered by a vacuum cleaner, and floated effortlessly over water and hard ground alike. The British government rewarded his idea by classifying it “secret”, but didn’t fund further development until they found out a team in Switzerland was working on a similar idea.
Cockerell was knighted in 1969, but the government paid him only 150,000 pounds for his concept, and then only after a lengthy fight. Sir Christopher died in Southampton, England, at age 88 on June 1, the 40th anniversary of the launch of the first civilian hovercraft, which crossed the English Channel in just 20 minutes.