The company was originally set up by its parent company, Hovertravel, the world's longest established commercial hovercraft operators to offer consultancy, training and charter services on a worldwide basis. To date, Hoverwork has carried out charters in over 40 countries worldwide, from the Amazon to the Arctic, from the Middle East to Papua New Guinea.

With a hull made of welded aluminium, the AP1-88 had a marine construction, unlike the SRN6's expensive aircraft-based structure. Its new, deeper, low-pressure skirt technology allowed fuel efficeint diesel engines to be fitted, combined with the new ducted propellers and centrifugal lift fans a significantly quieter hovercraft was developed.

The prototype craft was fitted out by Hoverwork at its St Helens workshops on the Isle of Wight and proved to be a technical triumph. The cost of operating the AP1-88 was half that of the SRN6 but with double the payload! Though heavier, it took just 10 minutes to cross the Solent. It was also more reliable.

The AP1-88 has now seen service all over the world. The type has clocked over 150,000 hours in a range of configurations, all without injury to those on board or near the craft.

The company, British Hovercraft Corporation, is no more but its designs and 40 years of technical information are now owned by GKN Aerospace Services Limited. Hoverwork has a licence agreeement to build hovercraft from designs supplied by GKN Aerospace Services and BHC. One such example is the AP1-88/400 - a half well-deck variant developed for the Canadian Coastguard to conduct a variety of specialised tasks.

The licence agreement also gives Hoverwork access to GKN Aerospace Services and BHC data. This information, backed by our experience and technical know-how, has allowed Hoverwork to embark on the development and manufacture of a new generation of hovercraft, under the name British Hovercraft Technology (BHT).