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So You've Always Wanted a Hovercraft... (Video)
What little boy or girl never wanted a hovercraft? Something loud that could travel over water, pavement, maybe even over a plowed field or through a swamp? Ben King obviously wanted one, so after he grew up and got his PhD in physics and found a good job, he founded Lone Star Hovercraft. Timothy Lord interviewed Ben at the Austin Mini Maker Faire, and we also found some video of Ben flying (is that the right word?) one of his hovercraft on a lake that we spliced into the interview to liven it up a little. Vroom!
I'm not very fond of eels, and I'm afraid my hovercraft might get full of them.
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
it was full of eels.
I have my hoverboard with jets at the side pre-ordered for 2015.
I miss the hovercrafts that used to cross the English Channel. Very cool machines that would make you throw up in anything but the calmest seas - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A02u03xhpPw . Victims of the EuroStar and other circumstances. You want fast, you go by train, you want low-cost, you go by ferry.
Although I have to say that the downside is that these are going to be just as annoying as jetskis, but in places where jetskis can't go.
The other day I had two share a beautiful, quiet, peaceful woodland with two irritating idiots on noisy little dirtbags. not nice.
no taxation without representation!
The word that you're looking for is hovering. As in "hovercraft".
When I was at school about twenty years ago some of the kids built a similar-sized hovercraft as a project and used to ride it around the playground. Given how cheap our school was, it can't have cost them much other than a second-hand engine and some wood for the body and fins and rubber for the skirt.
Recently I read an old Arthur C Clarke article from the 50s or 60s about how hovercraft were to be the future of transport and no-one would want wheels any more. I guess it just wasn't this particular future.
Slow news day?
I'd prefer the Dark Helmet model.
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Looks like someone bought the plans form the back of a Boys Life magazine.
Who am I kidding, I bought the plans too.
..that an American really invented the Hovercraft?
Plans for these have been around forever. Many, many people have built them.
hovercraft.com has many plans and kits for sale.
When my son was 9, he called me at work one day. "Dad, do we have a leaf blower?"....Yes..."Do we have a piece of plywood 4 feet wide?"....Yes. (I can see the wheels turning)...He goes on to list a bunch of other parts.
'Ok, dude....why?'
"I have a science project! I want to make a hovercraft!"
"OK then." He had gone online and found plans for a simple floating platform. No forward thrust, powered by a leaf blower.
It worked well enough to float my fatass down the driveway.
He got an A. My wife freaked out when I chose this as a teaching moment in how to use a circular saw.
When I was a teenager, the father of a wealthy school friend won a hovercraft in a card game. It looked quite similar to the one above. It was powered by a Bombardier snow mobile engine and was extremely loud. It would only hover when the fan was running, as the airstream for the hovering air came from a diverted stream of about 1/3rd of the prop wash air. Steering it felt a lot like trying to push one of those Ikea shopping carts that has four pivoting wheels...during a turn, you end up going sideways for a time. Going over water, it felt not unlike being on a loud boat or a seadoo. Going over land, it felt like being on a loud ground vehicle. The cool part came when we could drive it over a mud flat which alternated between sand and water. It really was an unusual sensation. The problem was that it ate fuel like crazy. It was far worse than a regular boat. The other problem was that when it came to a rest, the sand started to grind down the bottom. We did mitigate this by adding some fiberglass enforced wooden rails. Overall, it was great fun as a teenager, but even if I had the money to dump on such a toy, I doubt I would.
This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when first he appears as a protector - Plato (423 to 327 BC)
He mentions that the core is foam and is covered in fiberglass. If the engine gives out, will it float, like a jet ski, or sink?
My stepdad worked for a company based out of Florida, back in the 80, called Hoverstar USA. In the summer when I came down to visit them, I'd go to work with him often.
They used to use 440cc snowmobile engines, fully hand-made fiberglass hulls, and nice nylon skirts. We used to have a BALL demo'ing those out at the Jensen Beach Causeway. They were awesome for divers, as even powered down and free-floating a guy in full SCUBA gear and double tanks could climb over the side from in the water and it was plenty stable.
... did the first hovercraft crossing of the Cook Strait in a home-built hovercraft. He then checked out the ferry times for the return trip home, checked his watch, and shortly after did the second hovercraft crossing of the Cook Strait in a home-built hovercraft.
"The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes" - Winston Churchill
No, flying isn't the correct word.
Story I heard, back in the '60s. (Don't know if it's true, unfortunately. But I think we have some Ann Arborites here who might check the city ordinances.)
Plans had been published for making homemade hovercraft with a salvaged lawnmower engine. Stand on it like a Segway and steer by leaning.
Kid had made one and decided to take it down the LOOOONG, somewhat steep, slope of Hill street one night. (I shiver at the thought of how fast that would be going near the bottom...)
Cops had a radar trap and clocked him at freeway speeds. Issued him a ticket.
He fought it, claiming that the cops had no jurisdiction because he was flying, not driving. Didn't touch the ground. Take it up with the FAA.
Traffic court judge (rightly or wrongly) agreed that this might be true and the cops hadn't proven jurisdiction, so he dismissed the ticket.
City Council banned hovercraft within the city limits shortly thereafter. B-b
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Homemade hovercraft used to be a big thing since at least the '50s or '60s (and for all I know still are). Typically made by putting a prop on a vertical-axle lawnmower engine and building a simple vehicle body with a fan shroud in the middle.
There was a classic disaster that happened to a LOT of people who did this:
After they'd played around on land with it for a while they'd decide to test how it would perform on water. So they'd take it down to the local park-on-a-lake, fire it up, and drive out onto the lake.
It would work fine ... for a few minutes. Just long enough to get maybe 20 feet or so, over well over-their-heads water...
Then the spray it was kicking up and sucking back around the motor on its way to the fan would finally short out the spark wiring. Oops!
Of course they usually hadn't included any floats...
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Why hovercraft never caught on:
Expectation: http://www.google.com/search?q=concept+hovercraft
Reality: http://images.google.com/search?q=hovercraft
Perform this search experiment with Hoverbike/Concept Hoverbike as your search term and the disparity is worse - the real world things, even the expensive ones always look like they've been made in some back yard.
After logging in slashdot still does not take you back to the page you were on. It's been that way for 20 years.