Off topic: hovercraft construction

[Bryan Cotton]

Off topic: hovercraft construction. Should be noted though that I am using most of my heavy hangar stuff for clamping. Toolboxes, bucking bars, rivet sets, tire chains, the spare compressor, the Aerovee and the Waiex are all helping out here.


Another view. Spare resin on the plywood for waterproofing.


Could not figure out how to get the Saturn over there.

[rizzz]

You could always make an extra set of wings to go with it as well:
http://www.toxel.com/tech/2010/03/06/co ... overcraft/

[Bryan Cotton]

Vacuum bagging:
https://youtu.be/PxsIyFeDmm8

[Bryan Cotton]

Making tooling to form the lift duct:
https://youtu.be/EscXJ-3W230

And, a picture of the finished product.


I'd really like to get Matthew building the Waiex, but he does not have the interest. He has not been into working at the hangar lately so I was glad when I was able to get him back over. The circles are screwed together while spaced apart by other boards. Thin plywood is wrapped around to make a tube. The bottom of the tube glues into the hull. An inlet is glassed onto the top.

Any project with kids is good, as long as they are working with their hands! And their brains too.

[Bryan Cotton]

We had to buy bendy plywood to form the duct. It is drying right now.

[andrewp]

That is awesome. We just completed a season of science Olympiad (not the same thing, but run with me here) where one of the events was hovercraft ;-)

Like you said, any reason to do stuff with your kids is a great thing.

AP

[Bryan Cotton]

Thanks for the encouragement! Adam is big into Science Olympiad. His event is a car that has to go a specified distance. Plus there are points for speed and straightness. His all mechanical car has beat the computer girls and boys a few times. He is headed to State Championships​ next week.

[andrewp]

Boy is this off-topic, but my large child just competed the state NC comp as an FPOW in Hovercraft and Amazing Mech (NC only on that one I think). Fantastic experience and a very happy result on the day, but we couldn't take the whole team - the school missed the cut by a few points (a long story that would make this even more irrelevant).

All the best to your boy in the state comp and congratulations to him and his school for making state (a great achievement by itself). May he come back festooned with medals!

Cheers,

Andrew

[Bryan Cotton]

Andrew,
Very cool on your kid's accomplishments. No worries about off topic- this thread is in the off topic area and I put off topic in the title. We are safe here. We build more than airplanes on this site. We are building our Sonex community. That is why we have this area I believe.

[Bryan Cotton]

Besides the Saturn we continue to work the hovercraft.