According to Wikipedia, Christopher Cockerell "built and tested several models of his hovercraft design in Somerleyton, Suffolk, during the early 1950s." So the actual year that he invented it was rather earlier than 1958. This was however the year that his breakthrough came, when he finally convinced the National Research Development Corporation (NRDC) to fund development of a full–scale model.
Later in 1958, the NRDC placed a contract with the Cowes–based aero–and marine–engineering company Saunders–Roe, for the development of what would become the SR.N1 (short for 'Saunders–Roe, Nautical 1'). The SR.N1 first hovered on 11 June 1959, and made its famed successful crossing of the English Channel the following month (25 July 1959).
Cockerell was also a mechanical engineer (having graduated as such from Cambridge, where his father had been curator of the Fitzwilliam Museum) rather than a boatbuilder.
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