Talk:N500 Naviplane

How can we have both the Mountbatten class hovercraft and the N500 Naviplane referred to as the largest hovercraft in the world? The Mk III variant of the Mountbatten was 56.38m long, 23.77m beam and was heavier than the N500. I think we need to update one or both of the articles. Bliskner (talk) 09:33, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

It's a classic case of interpretation, and also a question of timing.

The original SRN4 was a tad under 40m long, and weighed in at 165t (or 200t for the Mark 2).

The N500 Naviplane came in at 50m length, and was proposed as a 260t vehicle (118t plus payload), although it appears the actual design fell short of some of these targets.

The normal measure for ship size is displacement (tonnage), but as Hovercraft ride above the waterline, overall size may well be the better measure, and by this measure the N500 was indeed larger.

However... the prototype N500 only held this record for 14 days before being destroyed by fire. The second N500 was completed 'some time later', entering service July 5, 1978. Unfortunately for the Naviplan, GH-2007 Princess Anne had meanwhile undertaken upgrade to a Mark3 and returned to service a month earlier (6 April 1978). And at 56m this was now the largest Hovercraft.

Summary; as a prototype, and prior to completing trials (i.e. not yet in service), the N500 was briefly the largest hovercraft.

In contrast the SRN4 was the largest such vehicle for the vast majority of the 32 years it was in service (1968-2000), and absolutely the largest hovercraft in full passenger service.

WendlingCrusader (talk) 14:07, 24 July 2024 (UTC)

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