A 16-year-old boy upstaged his entire school year by zooming into his Year 11 prom on a custom made hovercraft built by his hovercraft pilot father.
The family of Josh – aged 16 years – have been racing hovercrafts for ‘years and years’, according to his mum – Marie.
Marie said Josh was ‘born into it’ whilst the youngster said it was ‘quite cool’ turning up to the St Mary’s Stadium in Southampton, Hants., on his hovercraft.
Josh said: ‘It was such good fun just to see everyone go “wow, look at that..”‘
The youngster said that some of his friends and his head of year knew what he was planning, but everyone else was oblivious.
16-year-old Josh surprised his friends by arriving to his Year 11 prom on a hovercraft that was built by his hovercraft-pilot dad
He said: ‘Everyone else had no idea, so it was really good fun to see everyone.
‘There was a lot of cheering and smiling of happy people because it’s obviously something different so I was quite happy with that.
‘It was quite cool just being there… obviously I do it a lot but it’s so much cooler to have all those people there watching you and looking at you do it.’
Josh parked the vehicle at the back of the stadium and the drove it round to the front entrance.
Josh’s dad – a hovercraft pilot – designed and built the vehicle after Josh said he wanted to arrive at the Wildern School prom on a hovercraft.
Marie, Josh’s mum, said: ‘I asked the school whether that was a possibility, and the school then went to Southampton Football Club to see if that was even possible.
‘It’s taken a bit of backwards and forwards to get the right health and safety and insurance etcetera, but they’ve been really accommodating.’
Hovercrafts work by floating on a cushion of air created by an onboard fan.
The youngster said that some of his friends and his head of year knew what he was planning, but everyone else was oblivious
Some use a large single rear fan, with most of the air used to propel the craft forwards and some split off and channelled beneath the vehicle.
Most racing hovercrafts use a separate smaller fan solely to provide the lift and leave the main fan to propel the craft forward without losing any speed from splitting the air.
The air is trapped underneath the hovercraft by a flexible ‘skirt’ made from materials such as nylon fabric or rubber.
The fan creates a higher air pressure in the skirt which lifts the vehicle off the ground and allows it to hover.
Hovercrafst usually float about 6 inches above the floor but anything up to 9 inches is normal for bigger crafts.
They are steered by two main controls and the drivers body position, which allows them to direct the craft by shifting their body weight.
