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hovercraft

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I actually thought about this idea bout 2 weeks ago as I sat at my pond's shoreline... then felt the chill in the air n thought... 'maybe ill try during the summer!'
 
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my neighbor made one out of 4 tire tubes, 2 industrial leaf blowers... after about the 30th time of getting stuck out in the middle of the pond he gave up on the project...lol 1 of the blowers wouldnt stay running(the one used for propulsion).
 
J_Walker

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haha looks like fun! I'd hate to take that out in the woods and run into a cypress knee!
 
rocketkart

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i got a 8hp briggs engine of a snapper riding mower that just has the pull top on it and i was wondering where i cud get a 20'' or so lift fan that will fit the 1'' shaft on the engine any ideas? i keep lookinf at ebay but no luck all of there hubs are to small and wont fit a 1'' shaft
 
machinist@large

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I've been drooling over various designs for awhile; they all claim to be the least power hungry, but when you read thru the comments sections, they all seem to need over ~18 to 24 HP combined for both the air cushion and forward propulsion. I've seen successful indoor toy's that use just a 2.5~ 3 HP shop vac for just lift, but that's usually only good for a 6th or 7th grader...

I refuse to claim that I'm an expert, it's just that when you read thru all the reviews for enough different designs, all the actual builders all seem to claim the minimum HP claims are totally bogus....:surrender:
 
rocketkart

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yean i was thing small like a 6ft deck 40'' wide gust a toy to run around the yard with and mabe the lake. i was thinking tho maybe if i can compress the air that will go out to push it somthing like a garden hose when you put your thume over a water hose and it wants to take off out of your hand. making that into a air tower. ideas and thoughts?
 
itsid

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I can't remember the details.. but Jamie and Adam (aka the mythbusters) had a competition about building a "levitation device";
both ended up being a hovercraft of course ;)

I think Jamie did a surfboard design with just two leafblowers, and it wasn't all that bad either ;)

rocketkart:
carefull about the lake thing !
just because you can move on land, doesn't mean that it'll float on water;
most of the small low powered ones simply don't, they swim like a stone.

'sid
 
mrmikeman2

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They're actually pretty easy to make. My friend did one for my schools science fair a few years back. If you just want to try it out first, use a leaf blower, they're really cool.
 
rocketkart

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now i was thinking i have a old flat bottom jon boat. what if i make a axle that runs throw the side of the boat with some v tread spining to make it go. can i use some oil seals and bearings using a tube that run out the sides of the boat and in the boat i can cut the tube in the middle and put the sprocket there and using the oil seals and bearings in the tube to keep out water
 
Orange Krate

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Even better than hovercraft would be a Ground Effect Machine. Think of a fan powered jet ski with stubby wnigs that could get and maintain 20-30 feet of air. I've heard it rumored...never seen one
 
machinist@large

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Orange Krate said:
Even better than hovercraft would be a Ground Effect Machine. Think of a fan powered jet ski with stubby wnigs that could get and maintain 20-30 feet of air. I've heard it rumored...never seen one
Click to expand...

Ohhhhh, they work all right; the problem is that current FAA rules state that anything with an on board pilot that flies higher than 10 feet off the ground requires a license. They can get a little hairy about that......

As for how well they work, the former Soviet Union built some hugh prototypes for testing and evaluation. The concept worked just fine, it was the intended role that was kinda half baked...

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lun-class_ekranoplan

www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRT-R9BidoM

Do you have enough space in your back yard to park it?

:lolgoku::oops::cheers2::thumbsup::popcorn:
 
machinist@large

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Orange Krate said:
I knew about the giant ruskys. Here's more what I was thinking. The second video addresses the FAA stuff, well, the Kiwi FAA anyway
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FElrrUEQwzs&feature=youtube_gdata_player
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTM8rcA7c04&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Click to expand...

:thumbsup: The first link I'd seen before, when I started looking into these machines; I hadn't seen the second though...

My biggest problem is, well, my biggest problem; the lowest I've weighed in the last 20 years or so was the 245lbs I came home from the hospital at. I usually float in the 275~300 lb range; the certified shipping scale at work claimed that I was at 295 in my working cloths. My doctor would like to see me down in the 260's, so it's not like I'm farm raised version of fat Albert....

Anyways, that's why I've been looking at the larger kits; the smaller ones don't have enough listed weight capacity for even just me, let alone enough that I can carry passengers, which just pumps up the starting price.
 
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