For the science fair I am making a hovercraft
Question: how does a hovercraft work?
Answer: it works by pushing air down and into a skirt and using pressure from the air it lifts itself of of the ground
Hypothesis: I think that it works by using by air pressure to lift it off of the ground because it has so much pressure
Get materials from Lowes and amazon.com to make the hovercraft like the fan blades and adapters from amazon and the wood from lowes. got engines from local used engines dealer.
Make the hovercraft
test it and fix problems with it by fine tuning skirt design and failed hardware (fan blade adapter shattered)
test again and collect data and fix problems where necessary
Dimensions of hovercraft:
plywood :
length: 7 feet width: 3 ½ feet height: 26 inches
skirt height : 11 ½ inches
height of hover : 4 inches
weight : approximately 176 pounds
lift engine : 6 H.P. with 18 inch blade
thrust engine : 6 ½ H.P. with 20 inch blade
Abstract
I chose to make 1 hovercraft and see how it works. I chose to make a hovercraft because hovercrafts have been a point of interest for me and I thought it would be cool to have one. I think that the skirt with the drawstring design will do the best because it has the most room for the air to push the hovercraft up and forward.
At first I got a lot of materials ( $300 worth of materials from amazon and lowes). The wood I got from lowes, the rest of the materials were either from amazon or from what I already had at home like the guard so I did not hurt myself on the blade that provides lift. I built the base for the hovercraft using the plywood and then used strips of wood to hold down the skirt so that the hovercraft can get some lift.
The first test did not go very well, the object that held the blades broke on the first test so we have not collected much data. But what I have noticed is that we need to tighten the drawstring because it is too loose and if it is too loose then I lose too much air and I couldn’t get it to lift get it to lift. The second test was all I could hope for and it worked like a charm, but it did not move very fast if it did at all. I think it was worth it to make a hovercraft for my science fair project
Conclusion
I think that my hypothesis is correct about how the air pushes it up and it uses pressure to inflate the skirt. The skirt design was efficient, but it tore and I had to fix it later on. The way I mounted the skirt though could have been tighter and more bolts could have been added. I think that the fan blade should have a higher pitch because it did not push me very well and it was not large enough to push me either. In conclusion, if i were to change something about my project it would be to change the skirt material to something more durable and I would make the design of skirt a finger skirt and also I would get a larger, higher pitch fan blade for propulsion.