Matchbox SuperKings; SR.N6 Hovercraft

The Saunders-Roe SR.N6 was the first hovercraft to enter commercial service in 1965 in Norway. The Hovercraft was a British invention that seemed always in search of a practical role. They have the amazing ability to travel easily over both land and water but in the end are very fuel inefficient and not so much used any more, not in large passenger or vehicle carrying roles at least. They are also very noisy.

Matchbox made them in smaller scale in the 1-75 range and here in the SuperKings and Battle Kings ranges. The civilian versions were HoverLloyd in red and white, which was used on the cross-channel route and Seaspeed in blue and white which was operated by British Rail on the Isle of Wight route. A number of the red and white versions got the paper stickers intended for the Seaspeed versions as shown below. In fact I've two examples on file of the red and white hovercraft with the incorrect stickers and none with correct stickers.

There were military applications of the SR.N6. It was trialled by the Royal Marines but not, as far as I can find, operationally deployed. It was used by the military in Italy, Egypt, both sides in the Iran/Iraq war, Saudi Arabia and Brunei. Apparently North Korea nicked the design and made their own version 130 of which are supposed to be still in operation.