The last thing this toy needs is more weight!

Jason i agree that fact is that its just too small and heavy yes i have seen one thats been modified and it does work kind of if you want a better model and one that will work have a look at http://www.modelhovercraft.co.uk/ the fusion 400 and the griffon 600 are about the same size as the tyco thing but they will work a lot better

I have just bought a 2nd hand Edge and going by the previous posts it must be in good shape - on a full charge it really motors, from lino, across carpet over rugs on carpet and even outdoors on concrete.
I also have an old Typhoon - I made a new skirt out of a plastic rubbish bag (I read that somewhere) light, strong and very flexible and only needs shaping and joining on the back corners. (I also added a small amount of polystyrene inside the skirt so it floats - interesting to find that is now standard on the edge). What really made the difference just now was trying the 9.6v battery pack from the Edge in the Typhoon (which comes with 12v 8 AA holder). The Typhoon with 9.6 V leapt off the ground and for the first time travels across carpet.
A question which someone might be able to answer: why do the hovercraft seem to accelerate more easily at speed when in theory they are bleeding more air from under the skirt. Another question: the Evo 21 looks as though it has smaller thrust motors - does that mean they are an improved motor - lighter and just as powerful and an altogether a better hovercraft? One final question: has anyone ever tried to build a RC model of a CC7. That is where I started - without success.

i have seen this operate on water and to be honest i was not impressed it may work well on land as thats a soild surface but on the water it never really gets going. A plastic rubbish bag may help this but they are not ideal for skirts as they tear quite easily have a look at using ripstop nylon hovercraft acelorate quickly as they do the contact the ground so when power is applied theres nothing to stop them getting up to speed.I would not know about the other make i have never really looked at the different types but as said above this is a toy so it was not designed by someone that knows about hovercraft it you want a model that really perfoms well have a look at http://www.modelhovercraft.co.uk/ what happed with your cc7 theres is a model of a CC5 at http://www.model-hovercraft.com/cc5/cc5.html

ahh .. my CC7. I was very impressed with the reports of quiet running and superior control of the full sized CC7 and decided to improve on it in an RC model. I figured that directing the airstream at a solid object (the ground) would give added performance. I built my model so that at full thrust rubber flaps at the front or rear (each side) would open and direct the subsequent jet of air at the ground either accelerating or stopping the craft. One airfoil in the hull (servo controlled) controlled the air movement front and back and a 2nd servo controlled airflow left and right. In theory on full reverse all the air would be directed from the back of the skirt forwards towards the ground, causing the front skirt to deflate as well. (The left and right would cause one side to rise and other side to drag - in theory much better steering control. Unfortunately my craft was too heavy (balsa sandwiched between thin plywood decks) and my turbines (from hairdryers) were too small. I just recently found and bought "Introduction to Radio Controlled Hovercraft" by Jackson and Porter and that has relit the fire so to speak.

yes avoid using hairdryer motors and fans they are not right for our needs.As far as i know the CC7 had two fans for lift and thurst all centrifugal but i m not sure how air was divided I would sart off wiht a Griffon 2000 its a nice easy build and it will provide a nice platform for your atnomos hovercraft

From memory the CC7 could alter the lift in various parts of the skirt and that gave the improved steering (less drift) (same as the driver leaning to make tight turns in 1 man racing machines).
You have suggested elsewhere that alkaline batteries aren't worth the trouble and I have just been trying various options and came to the conclusion that Alkaline batteries simply dont release their stored energy fast enough. The 9.6v nicad gives 12v reading across the terminals at full charge (work that out) and at full charge there is no drop in hover height with thrust motors on full, forward or reverse. Replacing that with the 12v AA pack from the typhoon is not as good despite the extra volatage. However, replacing the alkaliness in the AA pack with 8 Nicad AAs (9.6v) and its top performance again - maybe even better - the extra weight in the nose improves the balance and the hovercraft rotates on a dime. Just the usual problem of short run time. As soon as the voltage drops to 10v (in all three systems) the skirt partially collapses whenever the thrust motors are turned on and travelling over carpet is no longer an option. I tried adding an extra 1.2v nicad in series with the 9,6v pack as suggested by an aussie contributer elswhere and that gives another 10 minutes of run time. His suggestion of sealing the top of the skirt to the hull with clear tape is worth doing too. There is another earlier thread where an Edge was refitted with brushless motors and variable control thrust but the Edge in the video posted doesn't seem to be much different than a standard Edge with the full 12v charge. The variable thrust doesn't seem to add much in a confined space either - even a little continuous thrust to a frictionless object results in continuously increasing velocity!

an early photo of the CC7 model.

your model looks great but i think it was just too small to work sadly but it got you going.Remember build it big the bigger it is the better it will work

Not sure I agree with that rule of thumb Tim - there are plenty of small models that work very well, look at the griffin 600! It's more about following some basic principles. Here, the problem is that centrifugal fans do not scale very well in terms of thrust of output although they're looking ok for lift where pressure is more important.

Thanks for the encouragement - following Mr RcAddict's success I would like to try brushless motors, lipos and tiny servos (+ larger turbines) in it next. Not sure where I am going to find those things yet. (I had also made it a bit narrow for extra speed and that was probably a mistake too). It will probably end up more true to the original CC7.

My model is not that small since it is actually over half a meter long. I have dug up the original specs for the CC7 and I didn't find anything about being able to control pressure in different parts of the skirt (although I thought I had read that somewhere). Apparently the superior handling was due to a combination of steering vanes and being able to reverse the air thrust between the two turbines (schematic in "Introduction to Hovercraft and Hoverports"). According to Angela Croome's book the CC7 was able to complete a high speed slalom beween the piers of the Hungerford bridge in a manner no other watercraft could match and left a Russian Hydrofoil for dead in a straight speed run. It makes you wonder why they aren't still in production.
PS. I have since read that the CC2 could alter the pressure in different parts of the "skirt" for steering, and was close to getting airborne - now there is a candidate for a flying hovercraft!

I have 2 of these Taiyo things that were given to me about 6 months ago. I was soooo disappointed with the way these things perform but at the same time they are the reason I got interested in hovercrafts. 3s lipo was interesting on it, but still wasn't worth it.

I always tell people to aviod these really they kind of work on a very smooth surface but they do not work on water i tend to point people in the direction of http://www.modelhovercraft.co.uk/ they are better than the cheap toys and they can be built with little hastle and far better performance

Do you know if anybody is making nice light, balanced 80, 90 or 100mm diameter centrifugal fans that follow the recommended guidelines: ie outer diameter 1.5 xs inner diameter, blade height at inlet 1/4 of the inlet diameter and outer edge narrower than inlet height to compress the air etc? (The Taiyo fans don't follow any of the guidelines so no wonder they struggle!). (I know you probably made yours Tim but the idea of getting the balancing wrong puts me off trying to do it myself. I am going to need a matching pair too.)