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Build Log
Cool DIY Airboat!
Hi!
Normally, I do airplanes, but recently, my buddys and me go to the canal every now and then to hang out and chill a little. Each one of us built a little boat for this, and I built an airboat. The hull consists of blue strofoam. It is 50cm long, 40cm wide, and 6cm thick. It is nicely rounded at the front and at the sides, and covered with a piece of plastic film normally used for truck livery. The center piece of the back is the mounting plate. It consists of 3mm plywood, coated with 163g/m² glass fibre and red dyed resin. The rudders and the RC box lid are made from the same material. On the mounting plate, there are 2 booms made of 10*10mm square aluminium pipe, carrying the rudders at the end. The rudders have 3mm music wire pivots, which were glued in a slot before the glass fiber was laminated on them. There is a normal rudder horn on one rudder, and they are connected with a wire going through two lugs. At the center of the mounting plate, there is a rectangular piece of 2mm aluminium, with a milled mounting aid, which goes into the 10*10mm square aluminium pipe carrying the motor. The motor is a Turnigy aerodrive XP, SK series. It pulls around 15-20A on a 9*6" propeller. It gets barely warm, even when constantly driving full throttle. It was protected against corrosion with lots of silicon spray. The servo is fixed with the metal parts of a luster terminal, and 2 M3 screws coming through the mounting plate from the bottom. The RC box carries the reciever, a Plush 25A ESC from Hobbycity, a large aluminium heatsink, and a 4s A123 pack. It is made from 3mm Plywood "painted" with resin inside and out. The lid has hinges made of M4 aluminium bolts normally used as rudder horns for large composite gliders. 1.5mm nails serve as pivots. Foam rubber strips normally used to cushion the fuselage, when a wing is mounted, are used as seals. The large heatsink is made from a L- shaped piece of 2mm Aluminium, which I got from my uncle when I was a kid. Yes, I kept it that long  I removed the ESC from its shrink wrap, and took away the little aluminium plate heatsink. I bent the main capacitor a little to the side, so thet the FETs can rest flush with the aluminium surface of the large heatsink. I drilled 6 holes into it, so that I can thread zip ties through it, which are used to press the ESC against the heatsink. The silicon thermal transfer pad, which was between the FETs and the stock heatsink, was also used when the new heatsink was attached. The large heatsink is velcro'd on the side wall of the RC box. I was very careful to make the cable feed-through at the rear part of the RC box water-tight. Therefore, I glued 2mm sockets into the top part, in which the cables to the motor are inserted using 2mm gold plugs. The main contact bridge used the 3.5mm gold contacts that originally came with the motor. The antenna was lead through a piece of brass pipe. The bay for the RX box was cut into the foam by electrically heating a piece of 1mm music wire, which was bent into the appropriate shape. The driving caracter of this contraption is fun and very exciting  I had to add little aluminium fins at the bottom to improve stability. It works good right now, but I will increase the length to about 30cm, and see what happens. Edit: I now mounted fins 30cm long and 1.5cm high. For each fin, I glued 3 strong wooden dowels into the styrofoam. Thin screws are driven through the fins into the dowels. The boat's speed is satisfying, and its a blast to jump over waves, and have the water splash all around and through the propeller. The built was definitely worth it. I hope I can also use it in the snow, when the winter comes. Cheers, Julian Edit: Due to some questions, here are the detailed dimensions: Hull: Lenght: 50cm Width: 40cm Heigth: 6cm Aluminium Fins: Length: 30cm Heigth: 1.5cm Twin Rudders: Distance in between: 16.5cm Height: 16cm Length at top: 10cm Length at bottom: 14cm Distance leading edge <--> pivot point: 3cm Distance pivot point <--> transom: 11.5cm Motor: Distance shaft <--> boat deck: 11.5cm ImagesView all Images in thread
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Last edited by Julez; Sep 02, 2009 at 06:53 AM.
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Thanks!
You mean, it should be longer? I tried different designs some time ago, and I found this one produces the most lift at the nose. If the fuselage is narrower, it is more difficult to get "air under the boat". I will go to the canal again today, and hopefully get a video
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I'm sorry yes no offense. I could be wrong but the proportion just looks a little off, maybe you can bring the rudders in a bit see what it does, a vid would be cool and prove me totally wrong
I'm still saying it's a nice clean cut built and I wouldn't be able to built that clean cut Boo
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No problem at all, constructive critizism is always welcome
I just figured, that, while a wider fuselage may create more lift at the nose, a longer fuselage has a longer lever arm, so they might be equally effective. Yeah, when I have a little free time, I will test this theory with a new fuselage. I have installed longer fins at the bottom, 30cm. Now I can turn at any radius, and if I slam the rudder @ full speed, the front edge digs into the water, spraying a lot into the propeller, which leads to cool sound effects I noticed, that wind and waveheigth have an influence. The less both is, the cleaner the boat drives. |
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Hi!
Today I was driving in the snow with a friend! This thing is a blast! It can get quite fast, and one can do cool things like jumping over ground irregularities. A video is uploading at the moment. Cheers, Julez |
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Last edited by Julez; Jan 11, 2009 at 11:34 AM.
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No, it snowed before the ice was thick enough.
But it gets fast enough on flat snow to tumble over backwards due to lift at the front. Like this. Well, here is my video:
Some cool stunts in the last half. |
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That's cool, takes a licking and keeps on ticking!!!
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Nice thing about airboats,... they go anywhere.
Fun video thanks 
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