Hovercraft
What is a Hovercraft?
A hovercraft is a vehicle that, instead of using wheels or treads, hovers slightly above the ground in order to get around.
How does it work?
A hovercraft uses and air sorce, such as a leaf blower, to push air underneath the craft. In order for the air to escape it must lift the craft off the ground, often only a few milimeters. But this is enough to make the craft completely frictionless. This is the basis of a hovercraft. A hovercraft contains four key parts.
The Frame:
This is what all of the components of the craft are mounted to, such as the seat and the other three key parts.
The Skirt:
This is a long strip of plastic that wraps around the craft and inflates like a balloon when air is forced into it by the lift supply. See below for how to build a wall skirt.
Lift Supply:
This is the air supply that forces air under the craft, causing it to hover. This can be a leafblower, or a lawnmower engine with a multiblade fan on it, or even a large car engine with large eight bladed propellers several feet in diameter.
Thrust Supply:
This is what makes your craft move forward. Although my craft didn’t have this, you might want to add it to your craft if you want it to be able to move around. This is mearly another prop and motor assembly that mounts on the back of your craft to blow air and make it move around. Small crafts can even use fire estigushers to reach speeds of up to 20 mph!
My Hovercraft
My hovercraft is 4 feet wide x 6 feet long. It uses 1/2 inch thing plywood for the frame, and a wall skirt made out of plastic. The lift supply is a 200mph electric leaf blower which blows into a plenem box which in turn directs the air into four PVC pipes to evenly distribute the airflow.
Your finished skirt should look like this:
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Related Books:
Flight Test Lab: Hovercrafts
Introduction to Radio Control Hovercraft
