A vehicle that floats above the ground or water on a cushion of air created by powerful fans.
Compound of 'hover' and 'craft,' coined in the 1950s when the technology was invented by British engineer Christopher Cockerell. It literally describes how the vehicle hovers above a surface.
Hovercraft seemed like the future of transportation in the 1960s-70s, but they turned out to be loud, fuel-hungry, and difficult to control—a reminder that cool-looking ideas don't always work out in practice!
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