The Hovercraft Museum CIO has undergone a large amount of change in recent years with many accomplishments which can be read about in our history page.
Building on this progress towards being a bigger and more mature museum there are a number of key things the organisation is focussing on.
Daedalus Waterfront
We are currently in the early stages of an ambitious project working with Homes England, Daedalus Development Company and Gosport Borough Council among other partners to regenerate the historical HMS Daedalus site which in part remains derelict since its closure in 2000.
This is because the site and buildings which the museum occupies sit within this derelict area and are in desperate need of rejuvenation. You can read more about our hangars and why they are important on our Our Hangars & HMS Daedalus page. You can also visit Daedalus Development Company’s Daedalus Waterfront project website which talks more in detail about the whole of the project.
Seaplane Square, and the two WW1 hangars we occupy within it, serve as an important home to hovercraft development and is key to the current museum operation. As such Daedalus Development Company has committed £250k of funding, and their support to put towards museum development to be used in achieving major external funding to do the following:
- Restore the two listed hangars we occupy into buildings suitable for running a modern museum
- Complete a major enhancement to the existing museum experience by making it more accessible and engaging
- Reposition the large hovercraft within the square to allow for work to be completed around them
Currently we’re working on a feasibility and vision setting part of the project with announcements to follow once this work has been completed and the next steps have been finalised.
Visitor Numbers & Visitor Experience
In 2024 we were able to open our doors to guests on Sundays in addition to the Saturdays which we had started with. This means we’re now open every weekend throughout the year from the start of our season to the end.
Moving into 2025 and beyond we’re focussing on building those visitor numbers up so that we can reach more audiences both local and from afar. By building up our visitorship at weekends we’ll be able to increase our yearly budgets and accelerate our progress in the many areas we are working on.
Expanding the Team
As an ambitious and growing museum we’re making a lot of improvements and enhancements to how we do things. As a result we’re needing more help.
We’re constantly looking to bring more people into the volunteering team to cover everything from day-to-day operations to allow us to expand our opening, to back office to allow us to make our operation more efficient and do more amazing things.
You can read more about volunteering and who we need right now on our volunteer page.
Educational Programmes
Our key charitable purpose is education. We’re doing a great job of reaching the general public during our open days but we’re looking at ways we can expand our offering to be able to offer a more options for learning about hovercraft.
These include:
- School/College visits
- Youth Group visits
- Summer activities
- Apprenticeships and work experience
Some of these programmes will take many years until we’re ready to roll them out. With that said, the goal-setting and planning for these programmes need to start now so that we can ensure that we’re recruiting for the right team members to help and fundraising in the right ways to achieve our financial needs.