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The Hovercraft Build

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2024 – update

 
It appears the website has broken massively, i have just gone through the process of re gaining the content, so the dates of the pages will be wrong compared to the build dates but… its operational again 🙂 

2021 update  

In my earlier days i got creative and built a 3 man hovercraft and a two man fuel injected Trike. This website is a collection of the build process i went through to achieve both those tasks.

The original website in general was written back in 2004-ish and for the most part of it has been left with the same wording as I had it back then, miss spellings and all 🙂

 

However nowadays I figured it was time to make it a little more user friendly. Back in the day I wrote the build website in HTML manually, but in this current day it looks ummm….. old 🙂

So recently I have tweaked the design and in some places, the wording, to be a little more relevant. I didn’t go over board with the design keeping it simple and clean.

 Navigation

To begin Navigating:

– Click “start here” button above to start from the beginning of the build
– Or choose a category from the menu in the footer 
– Or select from the menu at the top of the page

Anyway... let's get into it....

The Hovercraft was started in Mid October 2004, and I achieved my first test hover in one spot on 11th November 2005. The plans were purchased from ASV Australia and I have stuck to the plans up until the stage of mounting a duct, from that point onwards I’m working off the top of my head which could be classed as a scary thought.

So the main items I’m not sticking with in the plans are , Duct, rudders, length, width, steering, fan assembly and the motor

Hovercraft Specifications :

 

  • Dimensions

Length 3.52m (11`6″) + extensions total 4 meters

Width 1.98m (6`5″) + extensions total 2.14m

Height 1.30m (4`3″)

  • Total weight without payload

(max) 400Kg (881lbs), weighed on 23-Jan 06

Cushion pressure not sure fully about this yet either

  • Empty hull weight –

(no motor or parts, just purely hull and duct) 140kg – weighed on 17th Oct 05

Performance (all these readings may vary from the original plans so they are a guideline for now)

Hover height 230mm (9″)

Speed – max 100km/h (i’ve currently taken as far as 60km/h over water and that’s it till i’m more confident in how it performs)

Speed cruise 50km/h

  • Climbing ability

– Static 1 in 6

– Dynamic 1 in 3

  • Buoyancy

Not sure, would be more than original plans because i extended and widened the craft

  • Braking

– None, relying on no hangover and good judgment

  • Hull

– Monocoque, Epoxy resin bonded and sealed plywood

  • Skirt

– Extended segment, individually fed, Chip bag on rear material- I’m going to try “polyester Oxford”

  • Steering

– Multi aerofoil balanced rudders controlled by 2 marine push/pull cables

  • Engine and transmission

– Engine

– EA82 Subaru (1800cc) 4 cylinder, water cooled

Duct – 950mm diameter double skinned fiber glassed duct with internal reinforcing.

Fan – 9 Bladed Multi-Wing PPG 5ZL blades.

Drive train shaft size – 25mm

Gear ratio – 1.8:1

Fuel capacity – 25 litre plastic marine tank

  • Cooling system

– B14 Nissan Sunny radiator, approximately 400mm by 600mm

 

Click here for The start of Hull Construction