Word: solent
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...above the concrete runway. Test Pilot Peter Lamb maneuvered it easily, using a standard aircraft control stick. To dramatize the low friction of its air cushion, Inventor Christopher Cockrell pushed the four-ton craft around the apron by hand. Later the Hovercraft was towed out into the Solent for its first water trial. It rose in a cloud of spray and skimmed easily above the water among yachts and harbor traffic...
...boatyard. In World War II. though, he became the Air Ministry's darling when he conjured up a parachuting, self-righting, self-bailing life raft for airmen downed at sea. He demonstrated its effectiveness one midwinter day by stripping before startled British brass and leaping into the icy Solent to board his raft...