| Design and Development |
|
| Through staring at the ground or the hovercraft, talking to each other, sifting through the pile of valuable items on the workbench, or sitting in a chair in front of the fan, we came up with our ideas for the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, and lastly sixth hovercraft But the ideas don’t stop there. Here’s a list of the projects that we have developed and are developing: |
| First hovercraft - This circular craft is primarily a test hovercraft, built with the second hovercraft in mind to test some of the hovering capabilities with different skirt and disk designs
. This hovercraft was capable of lifting 200 lb and going down and up curbs. Its top speed is as fast as the person can push. It got to the point where pushing while running at top speed was not a good thing because when the pusher slowed down, the hovercraft kept goin at the his top pushing speed for a considerable distance. This was the cause of many crashes into mailboxes and the like. Second Hovercraft - This is the pinnacle of our efforts and hard work so far. A bullet shaped hovercraft, it is capable of lifting up to 200 lb using two leaf-blower engines for lift and one 4 hp Honda OHC pressure washer engine with a 36 inch propeller for thrust. It has been clocked at speeds up to approximately 15.5 mph. The skirt design is somewhat different from most traditional hovercraft, in that it uses a scale model of the large disk to disperse air evenly located in the middle of the donut shaped skirt. The air eventually passes through a set of holes and enters a compression chamber under the minidisk. The air then lifts the hovercraft creating a nearly frictionless ride. This skirt design is used on our first hovercraft and is being used in the Air Scooter. The steering is controlled by wires strung throough a series of eyelets and eventually connected to the rudders in the rear of the cage, which is made out of PVC cemented together at the joints. After the first propeller broke, the team started working on designing a safer cage which now has chicken wire surrounding the entirety of the cage. |
| Finished Hovercraft |
 |
 |
| 3rd Hovercraft - This will be the second generation of the first hovercraft. It will be built to test the new tarp design that will be used in the later hovercraft designs.
Air Scooter - This is a small one person hovercraft that uses a leafblower for lift and propulsion. Using a complex transmission design, the craft uses the pressurized air for forward and reverse capabilities. The Air Scooter has a leafblower positioned in front of the handlebar and houses all of the transmission systems in between the two layers of plywood. The skirt, which like in all of our hovercraft, is made of boat tarp. This hovercraft while achieving a hovering state was never fully functional. Thus we moved on to larger things 5th Hovercraft - We decided to try a one engine design that would have the hovercraft's lift and propulsion be provided by our 4 hp Honda horizontal shaft engine. Though the theory behind this craft design was plausibly, it requires a large amount of power coming from the single engine. Our 4hp engine, though powerful, was no where near the 10 hp engines needed to lift craft of the same size and design. So once again we looked to even bigger things 6th Hovercraft - Our newest design uses proven hovercraft designs that work for entry level racing hovercraft. We have also implemented a wood/ steel frame for support, but most importantly we are using a second propeller-driving engine. Our new 6.25 hp Tecumseh lawnmower engine should be more than enough to lift us off the ground, and possibly off the water. We are also using proven technology used on commercial hovercraft of larger size such as a reverse thrust system like those seen in the NeoTeric hovercraft and in some Boeing commercial airliners. This advanced system will be what sets our hovercraft apart from other hovercraft under 9 feet in length. This hovercraft could possibly be the most advanced hovercraft in its size class around. |
| No photo available |
| SST Hovercraft |
| propellers supplied by www.hovercraft.com |
 |
 |
| Hovercraft in Construction |
 |