Thread: Hovercraft
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Unread 02-06-2005, 20:43
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Re: Hovercraft

Quote:
Originally Posted by edomus
Question: what did the bottom of the skirt look like? Where were the holes? How were the holes reinforced?
I dug it out of the garage to take a closer look today and took a few pics to show it. The holes were reinforced on both sides with duct tape before they were cut out of the plastic. There were 5 holes total, each 2" in diameter spread out between the two Frisbees. The entire craft was 6' x 4', with the Frisbees mounted 2' in from each end, my brother did say however that the Frisbees should have been farther apart, so I'm going to do that when I rebuild it this summer.

The leaf blower is attached to the metal box via a hole in the back of the box, from there the air is distributed into the skirt via the 4 PVC pipes, helping to spread out the air and fully inflate the skirt. The four spots of duct tape on the bottom farther out were to protect from the PVC pipes cutting holes in the plastic when the hovercraft wasn't running.

The main improvement I plan to make is with how the skirt attaches to the craft along the top edge, I plan to have another strip of wood bolted or screwed down over it rather than just duct taping and stapling the plastic down. Also I plan to add feet off of the sides of the craft to keep from dragging and ruining the skirt when Its not inflated and running.

I've attached three pictures showing the top, bottom, and a close shot of the holes in the skirt so you can see in more detail how it worked.
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