How to Build a Hovercraft

If you like hovercrafts then don’t worry if you didn’t have the money to buy it. By using simple materials you can make your own hovercrafts. Here are given some steps to help you make your own hovercraft at home:

Required Items

In order to make a hovercraft, you need:

• Utility knife
• Stapler
• Cardboard of size 2-4 feet x 4-6 feet x 3/4 inches in dimension. It can be of any shape.
• Hole saw. The size of the hole should be either equal to or less than the blowing end
• Duct tape
• Mill plastic – larger than the board size
• An air blower

Steps

1. Take the hole saw and cut a hole measuring 5 inches from one end of the board. The size of the hole must be smaller or equal to the size of the blowing end.
2. Take the mill plastic to cover one end of the board. Make sure that plastic edge overlaps with the other end of the board.
3. Using stapler, staple the ends of the plastic on the board’s surface.
4. Seal all the edges with the help of duct tape. Make sure that no air can pass through the duct tape.
5. Staple the central part of the plastic cover onto the board.
6. Using utility knife cut 4 inches circles from the heavy mill plastic. You should have 6 of those circles.
7. Make yourself sit on the central part of the board.
8. Take the air blower and place the air blower end on the hole in the board and start blowing air through the hole end.
9. Ask someone to carefully push one end of the board. You’ll be surprised to find it moving. Do check that the plastic portion on the bottom part of the board needs to blow up or inflate. If it’s not inflating use plywood to lift it up a little bit. This will allow some air to get inside.

Tips

It is easy to make your own hovercraft, you need to exercise some caution. You must use a heavy mill plastic with about 10 millimeters of drop cloth. Hovercraft must keep over a flat and smooth surface in order to get best result. You can also try placing a piece of nylon string on the front portion of the hovercraft to make steering easier.