Radio Controlled Hovercrafts

Radio Controlled Hovercraft

A bunch of us at work are building Radio Controlled Hovercraft and will be racing them in June 2001.

This page will be following my building process and then have photos of the finished model and the race.

15 June 2001 - We had our race. I came in second of four. (Only two finished the course.) Details here. I also now have the build photos up. Sorry for the lack of updates.
26 Feb 2001 - I glued up the walls for the upper deck and trimmed the propulsion duct today. Made a motor mount for the lift fan. I'm concerned that one fan won't generate enough lift. I'll have to make the skirts and test it out soon. It won't be to hard to add a second fan for lift. I'd just have to make a new upper deck and cut more holes in the lower deck.
25 Feb 2001 - Figured out how to glue the outside skin on the propulsion duct and did that. I cut out and fit all the walls for the upper deck and glued mounting blocks onto them. This thing is starting to come together. I think I have a pretty good handle on how I am going to finish it up.
21 Feb 2001 - Started building the propulsion duct. I also started taking photos of the work, but I don't have a digital camera (yet) so the pictures will have to wait until I get a roll finished and developed.
For the duct, I cut a ring out of 3/32" plywood and glued a tube made of 1/32" plywood inside. I'll be adding a leading edge to the front and wrapping the outside in 1/32" plywood also. The motor mount will be epoxied inside as will some stiffener ribs. The rudders will also be attached to the duct.
I also started gluing the ribs to the bottom of the main body that will be used for attaching the skirt. I am going to be sewing the skirt out of rip-stop nylon and velcroing it on.
19 Feb 2001 - Started working on the body. I have a rough shape cutout. I've also been reading the sites listed below and getting lots of good information. I think the skirt will be rip-stop nylon and velcro on. That's a lot simpler than the design I was going to use. I also tested the amp draw of the motor. It's pulling about 1.05 amps. That's not bad. Even if I have to go to two motors for lift, it shouldn't be a problem. Maybe I'll do two for drive and one for lift. I'll have to build it and see if one is enough. The motor sure seems to push a lot of air.
17 Feb 2001 - Bought two motors for <$4 each at Radio Shack. The props fit right on the shafts and the motors spin nice and fast with the 7.2V nicad pack. Looks like a good combo.
16 Feb 2001 - Bought some supplies on the way home from work. I have decided that I will be using foamcore board for the main body. I got some that's black with black foam. Tres Chic. I also bought a three pack of propellers and some balsa wood.

Here are a few RC Hovercraft links :

http://www.flightlines.com/hovercrafts/faq.htm

http://members.aol.com/modelhov2/

http://www.model-hovercraft.com/

Check back later for photos of my hovercraft and in June we will race them!

Last updated: 3 September, 2001
URL: http://www.anansi-web.com/~timf/rec/rc/hovercrafts/index.html