I am trying to make a hovercraft. I have used a cardboard base with a plastic skirt to hold air below and around the periphery of the cardboard board. The skirt has an opening touching the ground to let air out and form a cushion below the hovercraft. When i switch on my motor air is pushed into the skirt and it fills up well and the board rises up. But air cannot escape the opening below so the air cushion is not made and no floating effect is seen. I suppose the air filling up in the skirt presses it towards the ground so hard the air cannot escape the opening.
It seems likely to be one or the following issues:
- Skirt is not “holding in” the air: Can you provide some clear photos of the setup?
- Motor + propeller cannot generate enough air pressure: Can you provide specs on the motor and prop?
- The overall craft weighs too much: What is the total weight?
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Actually i was having this problem with a cardboard body during testing, but it was solved. Now I want this hovercraft concept to work on My craft of total weight 1.5kg and I am using 10inch×45 degree propeller with 1000KV bldc motor. But in this weight and motor+prop the craft doesn’t even lift itself up
… hence the issue.
What rating of motor or prop should i use then for the same weight? Actually I am trying to design a quadcopter- hovercraft convertible so i need a motor prop combination that works for both hovercraft and quadcopter.
It’s usually the motor + propeller + input voltage that gives a thrust rating and as much as we would like to see manufcturers provide detailed data, very few of them do. A very good manufacturer is T-Motor where you can find nice data in most of their motor descriptions:
https://www.robotshop.com/en/t-motor.html
So if your craft weighs, for example 2Kg, you might try to find a motor + propeller + battery combo that gives 3Kg of thrust at 100%. power (a bit more to be safe), or 6Kg thrust at full power to ensure the motor and ESC don’t heat up as much because they are not being operated at full power.
Okay thank you
Hovercraft are a LOT of fun, but they fundamentally need to be as lightweight as possible. Really curious to see the project when you have it up and running.
Yes! Trying to keep it low cost while carrying sufficient weight is an issue