Nitro Hovercraft

[Mudduck]

Well I am working on a nitro hovercraft. I just wanted to see and here what other people thought of the idea and if anyone else have made one.

Steve

 

[bigfreak]

I tried to make one. I was inspired by the monster garage where they tried to make a delorian hover craft. I was going to put a MT lexan shell over the guts of a hover craft and paint wheels on it or something. I actually went out bought parts and started to put something together.

The conclusion I came to is that I didn't have big enough surface area to mass ratio. (too damn heavy). I was thinking about using a ducted fan assembly from a nitro jet plane thing. The problem with that is that the ducted fans for those planes suck air past the engine instead of away from the engine. If you think hard about the fans, you'll realize that inverting the direction of the blade does not change the direction of the air flow.

I did find an RC hovercraft page someplace on the net. The guy used airplane props and elctric motors and put them on these really really huge balsa hovercrafts that were to scale (like the real ones that move people and stuff).

In the end I gave up. Too hard. Good luck if you can make it work. Keep us posted and be sure to include pics.

 

[spm33x1033]

i have an idea, here is a fairly cheap hovercraft,

http://shopping.discovery.com/store...0&langId=-1&productId=56616&partnumber=708107
I have one and it works great (stock electric though), i was thinking that you could replace the two rear fans with a nitro engine with a MT diff (for one engine to power two fans

I also think that you should buy a lot of super/CA glue to repair holes in the skirt (black think that the hovercraft floats on) and
some extra skirts

also if you decide to try it, you might want to take off some of the plastic body to save wieght

but still, i don't really think that my idea will work, but if you have a lot of free time, i mean a lot of free time!

 

[Mudduck]

The one that I am workin on (the first one got scrapped too small) now is being made to carry a Maxx or simular size truck. As for the Skirt it is being made out of Pond Liner rubber, Tough stuff and flexable. So I do not have to worry about rips and tears as much. The drive system has one nitro engine and 2 props, one to lift and one to push.

Steve

 

[Plaidfish]

Muddock do you work or just have a lot of daylight hours to kill? LOL just joking, man you got some cool ideas...I got your E-mail last nite and I'll write back w/ some of my ideas on the maxx steering...I have my kid this week so my time will be limited, and I'm trying to get a digital camera soI can post pics...good luck on the Hovercraft......that will be too cool if you can move a MT on it....how big is this going to be?

 

[Mudduck]

Right now it is 3 1/2 feet long by 2 feet wide.

 

[Plaidfish]

DAMN that's freakin huge.....I guess you'll need that up in alaska w/ all the rough terrain huh?
I looked up your address and man you are in the BOONIES!! you can't even get driving directions from Vancouver.....do you have a pilot license???
even better a heli license so I can go heli boarding???? :jk: well sort of.....
I need to see pics of where you live it's gotta be awesome.......

 

[bigfreak]

Right now it is 3 1/2 feet long by 2 feet wide.

See that might actually work. My dumb idea was to make a truck with a skirt. (oh so manly). Good luck show some pics while you're doin it.

 

[Mudduck]

Here is a few links to pics of Ketchikan link-1 link-2 . the last link has a few "titles" misplaced, they are at the bottom and they are the ones with Prince Rupert in the tilte except the last one. the others are of Ketchikan.

Steve

 

[spm33x1033]

Muddock do you work or just have a lot of daylight hours to kill? LOL just joking, man you got some cool ideas...I got your E-mail last nite and I'll write back w/ some of my ideas on the maxx steering...I have my kid this week so my time will be limited, and I'm trying to get a digital camera soI can post pics...good luck on the Hovercraft......that will be too cool if you can move a MT on it....how big is this going to be?

wait, you're going to try to steer it somehow with maxx steering?
The way you normally steer a hovercraft is by having two fans, and turning one on and the other off. it works awesome on my electric hovercraft. But, since it might be hard to reverse a nitro engine, lol, it might work ok with fan flaps.

 

[fisherman]

Hey they made hover crafts on mythbusters one time they wre cool, dont know if any of u guys saw athat one tho.

 

[Mudduck]

MMMM the hover craft is being made BIG enough to carry on board a T-Maxx size truck, Sorta like a landing craft.

Steve

 

[spm33x1033]

oh cool, how wil you steer it? if you havn't solved this yet, you might want to try using flaps, or even installing a few electric motors to seperate fans. OR if you really wanted you could use 2 transmission assemblies attached to a differential so 2 drivelines powered 2 fans, so you can engage and disengage power to the individual fans, do you get where i am going with this. Also if you do this you might want to use a diff, spool for equal power.
Oh and for extra power you should put the hovercrafts exaust out the rear, by the fans.