Projects :: Hover Craft

What is it:
This 'hover craft' project is a simple wooden-disk that floats on a cushion of air. This was made by one person in about 3 hours (from about 7:00 PM until 10:00 PM), and was very simple and easy to build.

Materials:
Everything I used can most likely be found around the house or bought at a local hardware store. This list is also only for my hover craft, you don't have to use a circle design. However, as I've found, circle design is much more safer than any other (no edges, trust me, you bang into things).

  • 4ft diameter 1/2" thick plywood
  • 4x4 scrap piece of wood to help hold vacuum hose
  • 6mm or more plastic sheet, goes under the plywood, about a foot longer than the board
  • saw (to cut wood)
  • power drill (drill holes)
  • shop-vac (or something that blows out a lot of air), and an extension cord if you need it
  • drill bits and screws (to attach scrap board to main hover craft body)
  • something to cut holes in the scrap wood and main body for the vacuum hose
  • tape measure, staple gun, duct tape, small nails, coffee can lid, hammer, knife
  • optional, a chair to sit on

Procedure:
Coming soon. Look at pictures to get an idea.

Notes:
The hover craft that I built can hold at least 300+ lbs (I ran out of things to put on it), probably a bit more. Also, make sure that you balance out the weight on the hover craft, otherwise one side will dip and hit the ground. The one I built also seems to vibrate like mad (listen to the first video, you can hear it), I will see if I can fix that. It's also advisable to have a nice, large, and flat surface to test this on, as a small garage on a slight tilt simply won't do. However, once you get on the hover craft, and start to 'glide' around, its really quite fun.

In the Future:
In the future, I would defiantly like to make a bigger, more powerful one that can propel itself (no cord attached), and have good propulsion. This shouldn't be that hard to accomplish, instead of the shop-vac, have a leaf blower and attach a small engine to a propeller on the end and steer with rudders.

Media:
Original Hover Craft Plans - Hover Craft plans I based mine off of, taken from here.
Pictures - pictures of the project
Movies - movies of the project


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