Esme Mahoney-Phillips is an Assistant Curator working with the Science Museum Group Collection at the National Collections Centre. Her research interests include contemporary science and revealing the hidden histories behind objects in our collection.
65 years ago today, on 11 June 1959, the Saunders-Roe Nautical 1 (SR-N1) hovercraft was flown in public for the first time on the Isle of Wight. This has been described as the world’s first hovercraft and at the time was seen as a key step towards a new technology that would alter transportation of the future.
Assistant Curator, Esme Mahoney-Phillips, delves into the history of robotic animals and ticks off highlights from the collection to show that these feats of engineering are more than just a modern mechanical innovation.