Hovercrafts are a great little project for those looking for something a little unusual. This is made out of materials you would find lying round home plus a couple of cheap easy to get electronics if you don't already have them. This hovercraft is capable of going over water, ice, snow, short grass, concrete and other hard surfaces. Materials Chilly bin lid (for base) Plastic bags. (for skirt) Tape Hot glue Balsa wood Your choice of electronics (two motors with speed controllers and propellers, servo for steering, receiver and transmitter, and battery) thin plastic or plywood ( for bottom of hovercraft that directs the air to the skirt and rudders) assorted pieces of wire for control rods. Tools Craft knife Scissors Hot glue gun Sorry the video has the writing in the middle, my silly video editor.
The base is the lid of a polystyrene box that looked about the right size, it had a nice grove around the perimeter that i used to direct the air from inside the hovercraft, out into the surrounding skirt.
A thin layer of plastic was glued around the inside ridge so the air from the fan was directed though the groves cut out to the skirt, it also stopped water filling the skirt when the craft was moving forward.
To construct the Skirt plastic rubbish bags were cut out flat then into 150mm wide strips. Two half pieces of a pvc pipe with a 45 degree angle on the end were used as a template for cutting and taping the corners of the skirt together to get a clean shape, this isn't necessary but is useful. lastly a 20mm by 75mm hole was cut into the bottom plastic panel, this was to let air into the bottom of the hovercraft to make it hover, this could also be done by putting holes in the skirt, but i found this just as effective, and didn't make the skirt at risk to ripping.
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