 On 22 June 1959, the SR.N1 participated in its first 'operational' sortie during an exercise with the Royal Marines on Eastney Beach, Portsmouth; the performance of the craft during the exercise was commended by the services.On 25 July 1959, the 50th anniversary of Louis Blériot's cross-channel flight, the SR.N1 serial G-12-4 crossed the English Channel from Calais to Dover in just over two hours; the crew during this crossing consisted of Captain Peter Lamb (pilot), John Chaplin (navigator) and Cockerell himself.Testing had revealed several interesting tendencies of hovercraft, such as the inevitable delay between the heading of the craft changing and the direction that it was travelling in changing to match.