Hovercraft I

2013-07-06

We built from scratch a hovercraft with two electric aircraft motors with remote control.

It was summer and we needed a project to work on. The decision was made to attempt a remote control hovercraft. Karl got the idea from a video on YouTube by "Die hard RC Addicts," where a gentleman made a similar remote control hovercraft. We had never tried anything like this before. After talking with the employees at our local RC hobby shop, we concluded that although it would be a challenge, we could pull it off.

Making it even harder, we would be building it at our cabin and would have limited access to tools.

The first step was to buy all the materials. This included a radio controller and receiver, various electrical components, and some building materials such as foam and corrugated plastic.

Building the Hovercraft:

Testing the Hovercraft:

Changes made:

• • reefing the skirt

  • tying it closed with fishing line

  • cutting the hole bigger

Although the hovercraft functioned properly, there were a few things that could be changed. Here are some of the issues we noticed:

• • When on water, the skirt tended to catch on the water in the back, slowing the craft down immensely

  • The skirt made the hovercraft extremely tippy, causing it to often roll over when turning.

  • The craft was very heavy, especially because of the type of foam we used (this slowed it down)

  • Since the propeller that created lift was spinning counterclockwise, the craft naturally turned right when at a standstill. In addition, it was very hard to make left turns but easy to make right turns. We call this "torque steer."

This set us up for either modifying the existing hovercraft or making a new one (see Hovercraft II.)

Cutting the foam with hot wire