Cockerell was born in Cambridge, England, where his father, Sir Sydney Cockerell, was curator of the Fitzwilliam Museum. He began his career working for the Marconi company in 1935, and got married soon afterwards. He worked on radar systems during the Second World War. His great invention, the hovercraft, first saw the light of day in 1953. The idea was not an immediate success, and he was forced to sell personal possessions in order to finance his research. By 1959, a prototype craft was crossing the English Channel between Dover and Calais. Cockerell was knighted in 1969 for his services to engineering. He died at Hythe in Hampshire.