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Hovercraft Building Plans

This is how I remembered building my hovercraft in the summer of 2004 at Buffalo StateCollege. Im sure many other plans and craft are available on the internet. But, If you are

interested in duplicating mine.

Materials:

4 by 4 plywood sheet, about inch (5/8 would probably be OK, as would 1. inch might work as well, but I think the inch might bend a little too much. Butmaybe not. This is physics experiment! Because plywood is commonlyavailable in 4 by 8 sheets, so you could team up with somebody else, split up thewood, and then make two hovercraft, and race them!

Plastic sheet, about 3 mil to 10 mil thickness (as far as I can recall)

1 CD that you will never ever use again (AOL advertising CDs or similar ilk workvery fine)

1 screw (#20 about diameter, not critical) 1 to 2 long + wingnut forscrew

1 large washer (1 to 2 in diameter) to fit around screw. Maybe a smaller washer(~ inches in diameter) (Depending on the size of the washer, you might need asmaller washer ( to inch diameter) to effectively be able to use the screwand the larger washer). These washers spread out the force on the CD from just

the screw head.

Staple gun and many staples

Roll of duct tape (youll probably use at least half a roll)

Scissors

Pencils and string

Leaf blower (Black and Decker cordless works very well: it has a lead-acid

battery that can hold a fair amount of energy). This may be the most expensivepart of the craft, and cost about $50 several years ago.

Drill with bit for drilling large hole (about 2 for the Black and Decker leafblower, but other models might need a different size) and a smaller hole, maybe inch for the bolt.

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Procedure:

If you just got one of the rechargeable leaf blowers, you might plug it in to get itcharging. Once your hovercraft is complete, the urge to test is very nearly irresistible.

1) The first thing is to get the round shape of the hovercraft. Drill a screw-sizedhole in the middle of the 4 by 4 plywood. Then, put a pencil through the hole,and tie a string around it. Using the middle hole as the center of the circle, figureout how much string it will take to make the largest circle you can on theplywood. The circle should touch the flat sides of the plywood, Using the stringas your guide draw this circle on the plywood, maybe by wrapping the stringanother pencil. The intent here is to make a line showing the outline of thecircular hovercraft. Having a perfect circle is not critical.

2) Then, once you have a line showing where you want the edge of the hovercraft,

cut the plywood along the line. A power saw (such a jigsaw) can come in veryhandy here. Again, a perfect circle is not essential.

3) Once you have the plywood circular, drill a hole for the leaf blower. This shouldbe circular, about 2 inches in diameter. You should first check the size of thediameter you need on one of the scrap pieces of wood you cut off the cornerswhen you made the circular shape. The nose of the leaf blower should fit snuglyin the hole through the plywood.

4) After you have the circular plywood base and the hole, the next step is to attachthe plastic. If the plastic comes on a roll, youll need to unroll it and possibly

unfold it. When you have the plastic unrolled and unfolded, you can set theplywood circle on top of it. Then, cut out a circular shape of the plastic. Youwant the plastic to extend about 1 to 2 feet from the edge of the plywood. As Ithink about it, 12 to 18 inches would do well.

5) Once you have the black plastic circular shape, it is probably a good time to cutthe holes in it for the air flow. Fold the plastic in half, then in half again. Fold itin half two more times. If you cut along the fold, you will be able to make eightholes with one cut. You should cut about 1/3 of the way from the center to theedge, and make your holes about an inch in diameter. The shape of the holesdoes not matter (diamonds are fine), and you can always make them bigger later.

6) The above instructions will make eight holes. You can adjust the cutting to makesix holes instead of eight.

7) The next step is mechanically attaching the plastic to the plywood. This is asomewhat tedious step. You fold the plastic up over the edge of the plywood.Once on top of the plywood, you can try to gather the plastic together to make itlook a little more neat. You can use duct tape to hold the plastic in place while

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you staple the heck out of the black plastic to the plywood. The plastic does nothave to be stretched tightly over the bottom of the plywood. here: just fold it upsnugly over the edge.

8) The intent of the stapling is to provide a mechanical connection between the

plywood and the plastic. The plastic is going to be under a lot of stress when it isinflated, and so the staples will provide the force to keep the plastic connected tothe plywood.

9) The spacing of the staples on my machine was about to 1. But there is lotsof overlap. Dont worry about the airtightness of the plastic thats what theduct tape is for.

10) After the plastic has been stapled to the plywood all around using many manystaples, it is time to make the plastic air tight

11) Here, you will use lots of duct tape. Tape down the edges of the plastic to the topsurface of the plywood. From pieces of tape holding the plastic to the plywood,you want to apply additional strips to the plywood, and also additional strips overthe plastic. You also want to cover up the staples so that they will not be sourcesof leaks and also so they will not poke people sitting on it.

12) It is also a good idea to tape along the edge of the plywood. Hovercraft do notalways stop on their own, and so the plastic along the edges tends to get worn.

13) The next step is to attach the middle of the plastic to the bottom of thehovercraft. With the hovercraft on edge, push the screw through the hole in thecenter so that it goes through the plastic on the bottom. This step lets you knowwhere the hole on the bottom is. Then, take the screw out from the top of thehovercraft. Put the screw through the large washer (or, if you need a smallerwasher, first through the smaller washer), then through the CD, and then throughthe plastic and the plywood. You should have about of the screw protrudingfrom the top of the plywood. You should now take the wingnut, and put it on thescrew. Tighten the wingnut hand tight.

Now its time to test the hovercraft. Find a nice flat solid surface for your test, and set thehovercraft on it. You should feel a rush of air coming out of the hole from the bottom ofthe hovercraft as your hovercraft settles on the ground. Put the leaf blower into the hole.you might need some additional duct tap around the leaf blower to create a good seal, ormaybe not. Switch on the leaf blower, and you should be floating.

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