for fast motor boats. This hull shape would almost lift the boat out of the water, facilitating high speeds. In 1910, John I. Thornycroft & Company designed and built a boat called Miranda IV. She was a single-step hydroplane powered by a Thornycroft petrol engine and could reach . In 1915, John Thornycroft suggested that the Royal Navy might use a fast motor boat – armed with torpedoes – for coastal service, and in January 1916 the company received an order for twelve boats, which formed the beginning of a long line of Coastal Motor Boats delivered to the Royal Navy and later to other navies also. The Hovercraft Museum holds a number of hull models that John Thornycroft used for his experiments, using air-flow as a mean of lifting boats out of the water. The oldest dates back to 1877. He was knighted in the 1902 Coronation Honours, receiving the accolade from King Edward VII at Buckingham Palace on 24 October that year. Legacy John Thornycroft died in 1928 and was widely commemorated for his inventions and engineering skills. His son John Edward Thornycroft (1872–1960) and grandson John Ward Thornycroft (1899–1989) both served as chairmen of John I. Thornycroft & Company. His daughter Blanche Thornycroft (1873–1950) was heavily involved in the family business and her father's experiments, and continued to test model hulls for the company for at least ten years after her father’s death in 1928. The Thornycroft company name disappeared from the motoring business in the 1960s and from shipbuilding on 1 November 2001, when Vosper Thornycroft became VT Group plc. Notes External links History of Thornycroft shipbuilding works at Chiswick including photos 1843 births 1928 deaths English shipbuilders British naval architects Alumni of the University of Glasgow John Fellows of the Royal Society Knights Bachelor Engineers from London