A 16-year-old boy eclipsed his entire school year by attending his 11th grade graduation party on a custom-built hovercraft built by his hovercraft pilot father.
According to his mother Marie, Josh, who is 16, his family has been involved in hovercraft racing “for years.”
Marie said Josh was “born into it” while the young man found it “really cool” to arrive at St Mary’s Stadium in Southampton, Hants, in his hovercraft.
Josh said: ‘It was so much fun to see everyone going, “Wow, look at that…”‘
The young man said that some of his friends and the department head knew what he was planning, but the rest knew nothing about it.
16-year-old Josh surprised his friends by arriving at his Year 11 prom in a hovercraft built by his hovercraft pilot father
He said: ‘Everyone had no idea, so it was really nice to see everyone.
‘There was a lot of cheering and laughter from happy people, because it is clearly something different. I was very happy about that.
“It was really cool to be there… I do it all the time, of course, but it’s even cooler to have all those people there watching you and seeing you do what you do.”
Josh parked the car at the back of the stadium and drove it to the main entrance.
Josh’s father, a hovercraft pilot, designed and built the vehicle after Josh said he wanted to take a hovercraft to the Wildern School prom.
Josh’s mother Marie said: ‘I asked the school if that was a possibility and the school then went to Southampton Football Club to see if that was even possible.
‘It took some traveling back and forth to arrange the right care, safety, insurance, etc., but they were very helpful.’
Hovercraft work by floating on a cushion of air created by a built-in fan.
The young man said that some of his friends and his department head knew what he was planning, but the rest were unaware.
Some use a single large fan at the rear, using most of the air to propel the craft forward and some of it is split off and directed underneath the vehicle.
Most racing hovercraft use a separate, smaller fan that only provides the lift. The main fan then ensures that the craft is propelled forward, without losing speed by splitting the air.
The air is trapped beneath the hovercraft by a flexible ‘skirt’ made of materials such as nylon or rubber.
The fan creates higher air pressure in the skirt, which causes the vehicle to lift off the ground and float.
Hovercraft normally hover about 6 inches (15 cm) above the floor, but for larger craft a height of up to 9 inches (23 cm) is normal.
They are controlled by two main controls and the pilot’s body position, which allows him to steer the aircraft by shifting his body weight.