In the 1980’s hovercraft used early on for the development and testing of hovercraft started to be decommissioned. In addition, hovercraft in active service started to be retired. With no new home or apparent use they began to be disposed of.
The Hovercraft Society noticed this and a number of key people got together in 1986 to start scoping out the idea of creating a museum that would allow these craft to be saved and preserved. In 1988, The Hovercraft Museum Trust (registered charity no. 1003689) was formed and registered with the Charity Commission of England and Wales.
Over the next twelve years numerous hovercraft were added to the collection, being stored in many different areas of the UK. As the collection grew the museum needed a place to keep the collection together and exhibit them to the public. In the year 2000, The Museum was able to secure a premises in two defunct seaplane hangars on the HMS Daedalus site within “Seaplane Square” – an area within the former Fleet Air Arm air base being decommissioned at the time.
This lease that had been secured allowed the museum to store the majority of the collection in once place and open on a limited number of days in the year leading to large yearly “Hovershows” being held to help fund the upkeep of the buildings and care for the collection.
In 2016, a lease variation was obtained from the landlord to allow regular opening to the public. From January 2016 the Hovercraft Museum opened regularly to the public every Saturday.
Starting in 2020, the land in which The Museum’s premises is on was put out to tender to be redeveloped. As part of this process The Museum was able to work with its landlord and potential developers to agree a way forward for The Museum to be a permanent resident of Seaplane Square. A winner of the tender was announced as Murray Twohig who aim to revitalise the derelict ex-military base under the project “Daedalus Waterfront”.
In 2023, The Museum successfully gained full accreditation which allows the museum to grow into the future and obtain support and recognition previously inaccessible to it.
The product of a number of years work, and as part of the accreditation process, The Hovercraft Museum Trust embarked on the process of incorporating the Trust into a Charitable Incorporated Organisation. This culminated in January 2024 in the charities merging and continuing as The Hovercraft Museum CIO (registerd charity no. 1198896).
From April 2024 The Museum was able to expand its opening hours to incorporate Sunday opening in addition to regular Saturdays.