HUMBLE BEGINNINGS

My first experience in the fluid film industry began after I invented a small platform, the FLYLOAD Hover Platform. its load capacity was two metric tons. Very rapidly I learned as I searched to patent the system It appeared I was not the first to manufacture this technology. I sought out BHC to form an alliance. Today some greedily claim to be “The inventor of the technology” as seen on Google shame on those who prosper whilst grabbing from another persons intellectual property and very publicised invention, surely it does no harm to give credit to the real inventor. The BHC Hoverpad was designed and produced in the UK by Sir Christopher Cockrill an English Engineer who also invented the Hovercraft. The Hoverpad system was used to move the lifesize Millenium Falcon Space ship from Star Wars at Elstree Studios Star Wars set. Hoverpads were made in various sizes and were very successful until the early ninteys when I was offered an agency with the dying UK based company by a Mr Ted Tobias their last SA Distributor. I did not know the state of BHC because I lived far away in South Africa. Here is the simple truth about the BHC Hoverpad : Sir Christopher Sydney Cockerell CBE RDI FRS was an English engineer, best known as the inventor of the hovercraft. and the legitimate inventor of the technology. He and his company created the first Air Caster and Air Bearing technology called the BHC Hoverpad in the late fifties and later in 1968, the first mention of origins was recorded in the discussions on the subject in the Houses of Parliment in London prior to a licence being negotiated to Boeng and GM there are also references to the Hoverbed used in the treatment of burn victiums as the bed provided an extra gentle transport of patients. The following Text is from the historic archives mentioned; (Copied Text) “I was also interested to read in the last N.R.D.C. Report, which is not, of course, very up to date, that development is being carried out on a number of other industrial applications, one or two of which the noble Earl mentioned. These, I gather, include hoverpads, using high air pressures for use over prepared surfaces, and low-pressure skirts for lifting large objects over unprepared ground. I think a good deal of work has gone into this, and I shall be interested to know whether anything further can be said on it. I believe that work is also proceeding on conveyors and on a number of other possible applications. I also note from what my noble friend has said that one of these air-cushion applications includes work on a hoverbed which I believe has been successfully used in a London hospital in the treatment of badly burned patients. Can the noble Lord tell us how far this work has gone? I gather that it has been carried out by the surgical engineering firm of Allen and Hanbury, Limited, in association with the N.P.L. hovercraft unit. ” In 1990 I was appointed the Sales Agent for BHC Hoverpads by a predecessor, Mr Ted Tobias after he saw an invention I had produced in a local Exhaust Pipe fab shop and the subsequent magazine article. It was from this article I was approached by the Lost City project to create an earthquake bridge called The Bridge Of Time.

THE FLYLOAD HOVER - PLATFORM

A TWO TON CAPACITY PROTOTYPE MADE BY HAND IN A CUSTOM EXHAUST PIPE SHOP