My first hovercraft

[teslahed]

Due to me lacking funds for larger projects at the moment, coupled with the bad weather, i decided to have a go at making a hovercraft.

My first attempt doesn't have a skirt yet or a thrust fan or fins (thrust motor should arrive in the mail tommorrow hopefully). At the moment it just has a lift fan.

When i turn it on it hovers on the smooth kitchen floor and as i throttle up it starts rotating round due to the torque of the prop. When i give it a push it skims across to the other side of the room, rotating whilst it does this at higher prop speeds.

Is the rotating behaviour normal for a hovercraft lacking fins or thrust motor or do i have my balance off? I guess i'll find out soon enough anyway but any advice would be welcomed. One thing i did notice was that once i added a couple of ounces to the rear end where i will be installing the second motor and servo for the fins it balanced better and rotated less so i'm hopefully it will be ok.

I am going for small and simple with this first model. If anyone could recomend a suitable way of making a simple skirt i'd be very interested to hear.

http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/7885/hover1crj8.th.jpg (http://img219.imageshack.us/my.php?image=hover1crj8.jpg)

[teslahed]

Well i got the basics finished. Still no skirt though.

On a smooth enough surfact it wizzes about quite happily with 1/2 to 2/3rd down thrust from the lift engine.

One thing - it does now go straight and will also turn very quickly to point in a new direction when directed, although it takes a while before it stops slipping sideways at speed. Since i''ve got a fairly pathetic rudder arrangement i can only assume this is due to the CoG and shortness of the craft.

http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/4970/hover1fcgs7.th.jpg (http://img98.imageshack.us/my.php?image=hover1fcgs7.jpg)

[dill]

cool