Hovercraft are amazing vehicles but they are not miracle craft!
There are actually only a few areas of the world where hovercraft are the right vehicle to use, but in those areas – where 30 to 50 million people live worldwide, they are exactly the right vehicle. And in or after floods, they really come into their own.
If you can use a truck, we think you should use a truck. If you can use a boat, then use a boat. …..or a quad bike, or a bicycle, or a mule, or an ox cart. If you can’t get there by those means that’s when a hovercraft could well be the solution.
In shallow rivers in Madagascar, reed filled swamps in Papua New Guinea, cyclone devastated communities buried in mud in Mozambique, or un-navigable rapid strewn rivers in Tibet, Nepal, Zambia, Peru or Nicaragua, hovercraft are at home and can operate freely.
Our Fleet
River Rover Mk 4
Range: 200Km
Engine: Diesel, Volkswagen 2.5 5-Cyclinder TDi (RR501 powered by Landrover 2.5 TDi)
Payload: 750Kg
Number in Fleet: 4
2 active in Madagascar (RR403, RR501)
2 in storage in PNG (RR401, RR402)
Operational Area: Madagascar
Fact: Prior to re-location to Madagascar RR403 reached 10,000, otherwise stranded, people in Mozambique during flooding caused by cyclone Gloria. Highly manoeuvrable owing to twin elevon steering system.
River Rover Mk3
Range: 200Km
Engine: Petrol, Renault 21 Turbo
Payload: 450Kg
Number in Fleet: 1 – RR308
Operational Area: UK, Demonstration and training craft
Fact: World Record for highest hovering petrol engined hovercraft at 4802m achieved during British Hovercraft Expedition to China in 1990. Highly manoeuvrable owing to twin elevon steering system. Used as a training and demonstration vehicle in Europe.
Griffon 375
Range: 200Km
Engine: Land Rover 2.5 Litre TDi 300 111 hp (83 KW)
Payload: 375kg
Number in Fleet: 1
Operational Area: Bought and deployed in 2013, this craft is based on the Mangoky River near Bemana in Madagascar.
Griffon 1500
Range: 250Km
Engine: Deutz 6.0 ltr Air cooled turbo diesel
Payload: 1200Kg
Number in Fleet: 1
Operational Area: Currently being refitted in UK
Fact: Previously worked in Panama and Blackpool, UK. Will be used for flood relief work where higher payload is required and in long term development programmes in southern Africa where longer transit distances are required. Griffon Hoverwork is the world’s leading provider of medium lift hovercraft.
Vortex 5
Range: 100Km
Engine: Volkswagen 1.4 litre turbo diesel
Payload: 350Kg
Number in Fleet: 1
Operational Area: Madagascar
Fact: Lightweight hovercraft specifically designed for transport by helicopter as a collaboration between HoverAid and Vortex Services
