In 2005, there was a company called Atlas Hovercraft, Inc., based in the Sunshine State, out of Green Cove Springs. The Atlas website stated that it was set to become the largest hovercraft design and manufacturing company in the world. Production began on the first hovercraft, which was meant to transport passengers across the Saint Johns River, and other waterways. After 2008, however, the company seemed to disappear into the night, never to be heard from again. And the half-finished hovercraft was abandoned.
Editor’s Note: Due to the nature of abandoned destinations, many of the places featured in this series are off-limits to visitors or have actually been demolished. We do not condone trespassing and other illegal activity but rather encourage readers to enjoy learning about these fascinating destinations.
Designed to travel over land and sea, each Atlas hovercraft was going to be 100 – 125 feet long and cost approximately $10 million.
The president and lead designer of Atlas was Kurt H. Peterson. Peterson had hoped to have an active port in Palatka by 2007, where the new hovercrafts could be docked. In 2008, Peterson gave what would be his final update on the project.
A hovercraft moves on a pocket of air. By the 1950s, the technology to make transport by hovercraft feasible for military and commercial ventures was available. By the 1960s, hovercrafts were being built all over the world.
Peterson saw what was thought to be an opportunity to produce hovercrafts commercially, and he went for it.
You can just imagine the glorious view to be had, looking out of floor-to-ceiling windows – windows that were never actually installed. Only the exterior shell, or hull, of this initial Atlas hovercraft was constructed – a functional interior never became a reality.
This first Atlas hovercraft was called the AH-100-P. Millions of dollars were invested in this vessel. A well-to-do Chicago entrepreneur had hoped to offer dinner cruises aboard a hovercraft one day.
These new hovercrafts would be easier to drive, quieter, and have lower maintenance costs than the hovercrafts of the past, thus making the hovercraft a more practical transportation option.
The money, however, ran out – that and other unexpected issues caused the project to be ditched and the business to be shuttered.
The abandoned hovercraft, to this day, lies forgotten at the old Lee Field military base – without ever having transported a single passenger across Saint Johns River.
Lee Field opened in 1940 and was active throughout World War II. In 1984, the property was repurposed into the Reynolds Industrial Park.
What is our fascination with the abandoned and creepy? Maybe it helps connect us to the past, or maybe we are just plain curious to know why a town, building, or hovercraft, didn’t pan out as expected. Whatever the reason, there is an eerie beauty to behold in the photographs of this abandoned hovercraft – representing an unrealized American dream.
~byRachel Pfutzenreuter
