Hovercraft

[RiceLaxer06]

For a school project, my friends and i are building a hovercraft. Does anyone have any information on the subject that you can help us out with?

 

[SilentGTboy]

I started drawing up my own design on paint. The hover craft basicaly needs 2 motors, 1 for the air bag on the bottum and 1 to push it. Behind the pushing motor needs to be a rear flap to control the flow of the air in the direct you want would is powered by a servo. If there is an on-line disign that could help my project.

 

[RiceLaxer06]

we were actually gonna mount two motors on the back. That would achieve the same thing but give u a little more steering control.

 

[SilentGTboy]

Two flaps? Two flaps is what I had on my design, it helps channel the air flow in to your direction and will work tons of alot beter then one flap.

 

[RiceLaxer06]

because of motor limitations, we only have three for thrust and lift. So our design includes one heavily geared motor for thrust, and two motors powering two separate fans for forward thrust. We are basing our design off this
http://www.rc-cars-guide.com/rc-hovercraft.html

My friend has one and its very maneuverable

 

[bmoc2008]

hey tell me how that goes I've always wanted to make one out of a lawnmower engine and power it by gas

 

[RiceLaxer06]

haha too bad I'm limited to these little crappy electric motors

 

[bforum3]

It would be badass if you gassed it up and stuff... made it fast and it could go on water and land, that would kick!

 

[RobH]

good luck. it's an interesting project. did you ever see the junkyard wars where they made hover crafts? it wasn't anything special. they were basically big, flat boards with skirts around them. you should be able to do the same with a piece of aluminum. Just blow air in the center of it and it should hover. at least it did for the ones on that show.

-Rob

 

[RiceLaxer06]

i have a limited materials list though. I can't use aluminum. I'm making my skirt out of a plastic bag or duct tape. Have to test stuff. I also have to make my propeller out of popsicle sticks. It should be interesting.

 

[SilentGTboy]

If you where using a nicro engine for the thrust I have a prop I can send you. Popsicle sticks, you need something alot better then that. You don't have any props from anything you can use?

 

[RobH]

yeah those little balsa-wood airplanes cost like a buck and they are at least shaped like a prop and are platic and not wood. regaurdless, this should be interesting.

 

[SkyMaxx]

What is your budget?

You can use an old tire innertube sliced open length wise for the skirt. You could use just about anything for the deck (basswood or a light sheet of aluminum might be good). You will need somekind of cowling to shroud the propellers. You will need something to for steering (rudders or variable thrust using two engines will work). You will need to buy some motors or engines (electric motors are quiet, cheap. and efficient). You will need the electronics (radio, speed controls, servos, linkages, receiver, battery packs, etc.). And finally some decent propellers. Popsicle sticks can be made to work, but you have to come up with a decent hub to mount them on. Flat pitch is what popsicle sticks are and they will not provide much in the way of thrust. If you buy some small inexpensive plastic props from the LHS, you won't need to worry about the hub...just the method of mounting them to the motors. Finally, you will need a way to put it all together.

I can give more info, but I'll let you digest this and see what questions you might have.

 

[bmoc2008]

i thought about doing this but gt do u have the props i want them thanks skymaxx for the info if i can i will make a gasser and post some pics

 

[RiceLaxer06]

basically, its a school project, we have limited materials.

We have to accomplish certain tasks using the hovercraft.

A lot of these ideas sound cool, but arnt in the materials list. I got it to float today though using a garbage bag as a skirt and popsicle sticks for a prop. Its hard but it works. I have to work on making the drive now though.

Ill post a link to the rules page as soon as i know where it is. My teacher is gonna tell us on monday.

 

[TAKE/it/TO/the/MAXX]

well i did i similar project in school but we used magnets to keep it in the air we made a bid square with magnets then we clued the magnets to the car but we made it so it would float and the magnets wouldnt stick ....then we pun servo baterypack and reciever on it then a slot car motor hook to the servo then when we turned with the controller the car would turn great it worked real well but there was one flaw the propeller we put on the motor kept flying off at high spped and cuting people so we only got a c for the project

 

[SilentGTboy]

Lol, like a huge refrigerator magnet sheet? That stuff would be awesome. You know what else is cool? Velcro suits with velcro walls. Your run and jump into the wall and stick to it. Anyone ever try that?

 

[SkyMaxx]

Yeah, his name is Super Dave Osbourne...or maybe it was Dave Letterman. How original.

How about the next time you want to de-rail someone's thread you come ask permission first? Biotch!

 

[TAKE/it/TO/the/MAXX]

skymaxx

were u talking to me?

if so sorry
but what did i do wrong?

 

[TAKE/it/TO/the/MAXX]

it was maglev so it floated we just reversed the polarity by fliping the mag net over so it would float ,,,,,,it didnt stick