My four-year experiment of modifying a factory built hovercraft, the saga continues. Last time out it operated on ice and land, but not enough lift for deep grass or to operate over water. It was a real hog on water, not quite out of the water, pushing it out of the way like a wounded animal or like primitive boat/displacement craft.
I could not figure out how to put my Roto-Zip back together, so I put one of the drill type cutters into my cordless drill and it worked! Not real clean, fast or with any high degree of accuracy, but it worked.
One of the things I did was to cushion my seat and kneepads. I used flat sheets of 1/2" pool noodle material.
The domed clear vinyl air splitter was adapted from a basement window cover, ran about $12.
I also covered the inside of the duct with sill sealer, to help absorb sound and to make a tighter clearance with the fan. I hope the adhesive I used stays on, if not I'll use mineral sprits to remove it.
I also used Great Stuff to build up a foam diverter at the bow. This should direct the tunnel air for lift, need to cut-form and sculpt it yet...............another project, will let flay as it.
I'm going to add a few additional clips to the diverter/splitter, maybe make the edge facing the fan more consistent.
The original craft used 33% of its power for lift; I'm guessing the current configuration is about 44%, so it will be a little slower.
Photos of work done Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Will it fly?
