hovercraft designer and manufacturer . it was founded after griffon hovercraft ltd of southampton and hoverwork ltd of the isle of wight were acquired by the bland group in 2008 then merged in 2009 . 1 the isle of wight facility was closed in 2012 . hoverwork bht130 solent express formerly of hovertravel at the factory in 2014 contents 1 history 2 models 3 military and rescue applications 4 see also 5 references 6 external links history edit before the merger with hoverwork griffon hovercraft ltd founded 1976 2 was one of the oldest manufacturers of larger sized hovercraft . in the 1960s the company s founder dr e.w.h. gifford 2 was one of the early hovercraft pioneers and was involved with the first commercial hovercraft operation . at the time of the merger in march 2009 the company was run by john gifford the founder s son . models edit griffon hoverwork produces a range of hovercraft ranging from 5 to 180 person carrying capacity . their hovercraft are mainly built from aluminium while parts of the cabins are constructed from glass reinforced plastic . a unique aspect of the griffon line is that all models are powered by marine diesel engines . 2 griffon hoverwork was the first hovercraft manufacturer to power their craft with marine diesel engines which they claim provides greater durability when operating the craft in salt water conditions . 2 griffon hovercraft are mainly used for civilian transport military and life guard operations . they are regarded as commercial craft for heavy duty applications rather than as leisure craft.the company also performs experimental design work . they designed and produced an experimental trimaran ferry boat for operation on the river thames in london hovering crop sprayers hovering cricket pitch covers for lord s cricket ground and a hovering reed cutter for a company in austria . 3 military and rescue applications edit griffon s hovercraft primarily versions of their lightweight griffon 2000td hovercraft have been purchased by military and rescue organisations such as the royal marines the royal national lifeboat institution the korean coast guard the pakistan navy the swedish coast guard 4 the polish border guard the estonian border guard the lithuanian state border guard service in klaip da and the colombian navy in their fight against farc in the amazon rainforest . 5 in 2008 a griffon 380td entered service with avon fire and rescue service . 6 in 2010 griffon bid for work on the ship to shore connector which would replace the landing craft air cushion . 7 see also edit british hovercraft corporation christopher cockerell inventor of the hovercraft references edit griffon hoverwork ltd u.k. company overview bland group retrieved 22 march 2010 a b c d armed forces international suppliers armedforces int retrieved 22 march 2010 navies turn to a floating force naval technology.com retrieved 22 march 2010 the swedish coastguard orders a new griffon 2400td bland group retrieved 22 march 2010 gardner frank 8 may 2014 . british combat hovercraft a game changer in colombia . bbc news . retrieved 28 december 2014 . avon fire and rescue griffon hovercraft archived december 2 2008 at the wayback machine . marinette marine to build ship to shore connector . 2010 09 15 . retrieved 2010 09 15 . saunders stephen rn jane s fighting ships 2003 2004 isbn 0 7106 2546 4 external links edit griffon hovercraft official website griffon hovercraft video video on youtube wikimedia commons has media related to griffon hoverwork . coordinates 50 54 04 n 1 22 57 w 50.90111 n 1.38250 w 50.90111 ; 1.38250 retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title griffon hoverwork & oldid 719767033 categories hovercraft manufacturershidden categories articles with wayback machine linkscommons category with local link same as on wikidatacoordinates not on wikidata navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version in other projects wikimedia commons languages deutsch edit links this page was last modified on 11 may 2016 at 17 18 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view