I think it'd be great if these plans were part of the patreon perks! I'm not sure if I have the time to build any but if I could take a look at all of them out of curiosity it would make me more likely to join the patreon
The whole other famous youtuber just lurking in the background thing comes across as creepy. Normally its just done in the hope of sharing subscribers or business trip tax dodge.
When I was a teenager my dad bought a hovercraft that was 13ft long. It was an old fan boat that had been repurposed into a large hovercraft. The thing was a beast and fun to drive around. We brought it out on a lake several times. Good memories.
Very cool. I only rode a hovercraft once, but that was one of the massive English Channel Hoverspeed ferries from Calais to Dover, in the early nineties, when my parents and me went to Britain for vacation. Good memories there too, I was over the moon getting to ride that even once as a kid! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoverspeed
Your dad is a legend. He needs to be in more videos. Such dad energy, clearly an absolute 1st class chap. Also DIY perks!!! Best collaboration on RUclips. Incredible scenes.
As a man about the same age as your dad, I remember the hovercraft plans that they used to sell in the back of comic books and kids magazines. The expression on his face truly tells that story. I have driven 180 miles per hour, flown airplanes, repelled out of helicopters and other cool stuff; but I known I would grin ears wide on that DIY hovercraft!
I love it! I grew up drooling over the hovercraft plans advertised in the back of Boy's Life magazine. I bought them and built one, but the 1980's requirement of using a vacuum cleaner motor plugged into a wall outlet made me dream of making a cordless one.
Takes me back to my year 11 at high school days. Was doing a project on hovercrafts for physics. I made a 8x4 ft hovercraft from 3mm plywood. I spent a lot of time on the plenum chamber design. I used a 2 stroke lawnmower motor for the lift motor. Awesome build mate.
Christopher Cockerell will be smiling down. I’m old enough to remember the mighty SRN4 Super 4s and the ill-fated French N500. With an east wind, you could hear them coming from Calais/Boulogne long before seeing them. Happy memories of visiting my great aunt in 70s Dover. Keep up the good work.
The small racing hovercraft also use rudders, but at least some of the steering comes from the driver shifting their weight from side to side. That may give you a little more control.
I like that I am noticing content creators that started with rc are slowly just making vehicles they can get in. No complaints because it's cool, let's be real
Corner thrusters will help to keep the vehicle on track, and will also help to compensate for terrain that isn't completely level. Also some sturdy fan guards and corner bumpers will help to protect the vehicle and nearby personnel. Nicely done job of "hot gluing your way to a better tomorrow." (Yes, you can use that if you like, with attribution) :)
I saw where someone had great success with a full under bag setup with strategic silver dollar sized holes. Appeared to have better lift with similar motors. Of course, comparing apples and oranges, but, also easy to try! I'm like your dad with the "always wanted to build a hovercraft" dream.
for steering you can also put ducted fans on the front sides to push it angled. it's the same assisted steering method the royal canadian coastguard uses on their hovercraft
Great job! When I was much younger I wanted to build a hovercraft but at that time with internal combustion engines the cost was way too high. Keep up the good work and tweak the machine to get it even better.
It would be cool to see a hovercraft / car (or bike) hybrid. Use the fans and skirt to reduce the friction of the wheels when cruising, and drop down onto the wheels for sharper turns.
You need differential thrust for the edfs so that you can ride on slanted surfaces. If the surface is slanted, power down half of the craft and power up the other half to tilt the craft for more straight traveling.
Good work! I've built a few basic disc hovercrafts out of a vacuum cleaner (indoor, extension cabled) and a leaf blower (gas-powered, outdoor) That type is fun for kids and you kind of play a giant game of air hockey pushing them across tennis courts and that sort of area. Yours is much more of a vehicle and seems to have good lift. Way to go.
Great video! Looks like you all had ton of fun building and riding it together. I wonder if you could use thrust vectoring with your dual prop setup? Do you know about how much thrust they each can produce?
Differential thrust*. But yes, this. Would have been easier to just use a rc transmitter and receiver to control it. Then rudder and differential could just be tied together on the TX.
Amazing project! I think the only thing that it really needs is directional thrust, meaning you steer by changing the direction of the motors rather than moving the rudders.
Great build! I love the duct tape engineering! And Thanks for not just 3D printing everything! and actually saying how it’s faster just making it yourself! I still want a printer though lol I highly suggest a gyro it makes hovercraft builds so much easier to fly
If you moved the thrust props to the centre of the craft and installed them in ducts, this would give a much better point from which to use them with reversible, differential thrust to instantly stop, go backwards, and have yaw control. The simple way would just be to make a throttle that lets the props spin backwards to blow air toward the front for stopping, and reversing thrust, and or producing yaw. The tricky way, is to take a page out of the helicopter rotor swash plate, and tilting blades page to allow more control. The rudders would still help provide stability in forward flight, and allow for fine yaw control at faster speeds. This is very cool.
I get the feeling the skirt needs a TON more power. It's basically dragging it along, instead of it barely touching the ground. Mind you, I've never built my own hovercraft, but I did have a Tyco hovercraft when I was a kid and I distinctly remember the skirt floating - it'd only drag when the battery got really low.
Yeah the skirt is just to be able to conform to the uneven ground and provide some stability if there’s an imbalance, and it should float a little bit off the ground. It’s the same concept like the board with no skirt, it should float without contacting but the skirts just provide some leeway with bumps and stuff.
man this brings me back. dad and i found a backpack leafblower on the side of the highway(all smashed up, likely fell off truck) we turned that sucker into a hovercraft. plywood and 6mil plastic
That's really cool that your dad helped you build this. He sure got a kick out of driving it! I hope you did make him one for Christmas. It would be funny to race them. I'm actually quite surprised that those trash bags held up to that. Maybe you guys have better ones in the UK or maybe those are the same as the contractor bags we have here. I've never actual bought any of those before so I don't know. I want to buy some eventually because I saw a guy build an entire bushcraft bed out of them and some logs, which seemed cool.
Jerry rig in a differential thrust to help on turning, build a landing gear that can take the hard landing of cutting off the power suddenly and so it wont just throw you out in the process, rebuild whole steering system to be more robust, maybe carbon fiber plate, but do build in intentional weak point so whole thing wont be destroyed, build cage around the forwards pushing fans that are tied to mounting plate of the motor, again having that whole thing come out if there is collision, the skirt could be made from two used tractor inner tires cut in halfs and connected again with rubber glue for better durability (and shape for the vehicle) and have baffles to first of all added safety so if one spot gets damaged whole skirt wont inflate instantly and secondly so that air wont move so fast from one spot to another allowing you move bit more off from center of gravity. Also those ducted fans should be pushing in directly inside the skirt and skirt having holes inside surface closer to chassis, where exhaust air is directed under neat the vehicle and hence only way to exit is below the skirt increasing your lift. This way you have maximum skirt inflation while utilizing and directing the leaks to lift skirts out of the groun. You should also install closed cell foam inside the skirt. Get desired size (by testing and calculating how much weight certain m3 peace can create buoyancy in water) round rod of it , cut it in half and glue it inside the rubber... ou and test it in shallow water to see if it floats before going into deeper water.. beats having to dive to get your hover craft bottom of the lake. Foam is covered inside, while also acting as mentioned landing gear depending on stiffness of the foam, it keeps frame from contacting the ground, while also lifting the edge of the skirt off the ground, so wear and damage is located below, not on the edge where it connects to frame. Just few things to consider for V2. Might want to reread how hovercrafts actually work and those planning on making RC version not much needs to be redone in the design of it, just add the foam flotation, put some tape on the inner side of skirt to reinforce the material you are using or use say bicycle inner tubes, then cut small holes, say by drilling and increase size or number of holes until it wont burst from over pressure. You can build jerry rid measuring device too from peace of clear tube, mount it into board so skirt tube is above it, make U shape, put water into U shape and mark into hose location of water surface. Join other end to skirt by making humps into edge of the tube and pushing it trough one of the holes. WIth more tape you can increase diameter of the tube. Its impractical to get each size hose to fit just right but inner diameter of the tube should be lose as possible to side of hole witch is closest to current hole size Activate your fan or what ever you use and if water spurts out you have way too small holes creating over pressure and if it does not move at all you might have holes too large. With testing find the right size for say 80% max power of the ducted fan, but at full power there should not be noticeable increase in tube diameter indicating potential to burst if scraped by sharp object, but allows to have extra pressure in required condition acting in heavy bumps as shock absorber instead of hitting chassis to ground, but this requires testing to see what is right for intended capabilities.
Must be great growing up in the age of social channels and more advanced/available tech, building projects with friends and family and, learning whilst having such a laugh! You have my sub and bell! Looking forward to seeing more. 👍
It looks nice, If you want longer trial and lower weight, repplace the axial propeller for lifting by radial fan, you will obtain more pressure and consume less power (high pressure low flow = Radial, high flow low pressure = axial).
Nice start to a SEV. A friend of mine use to design hovercrafts or surface effect vehicles to be more correct. Barry warned me to keep the cushion pressure below 10 lbs per square foot that would be about 50 kg per square meter. Oh Berry designed the Sevtech hovercrafts about 30 odd years ago... the bag skirt that he uses is more stable then the finger skirt developed in Britain that you are likely familiar with.
Here's the model hovercraft plans you can buy and support me through. 😀Thanks for watching! store.projectair.co.uk/products/rc-hovercraft
Awesome! Hey, is your hot glue gun powered by battery? Which one is it? Mine from Bosch is pretty crappy. It's more for warm glue not hot...
I think it'd be great if these plans were part of the patreon perks! I'm not sure if I have the time to build any but if I could take a look at all of them out of curiosity it would make me more likely to join the patreon
@@SutherlandBoswell thanks for the suggestion, I think I’ll do that!
@@johnnyrocket3200 mine is an amtech one which has a detachable charger
@@Project-Air Why are people disliking this? It's really cool and interesting!
ProjectAir + DIY Perks = Dream Team. Brilliant work!
Tom Stanton as a bonus would be awesome.
@@gerryfalke like in the Damm Buster Video, a couple of years back?
@@Craftlngo exactly
The whole other famous youtuber just lurking in the background thing comes across as creepy. Normally its just done in the hope of sharing subscribers or business trip tax dodge.
Came here for this comment!
The best thing about everything being hot glued together is that nothing ever breaks it just fall off 😂
Just like old cartoons
Haha, I'm rebuilding my rc seaplane with polyurethane glue for the same reason.
Except if it breaks after it goes flying off
This is true 😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅
Hot glue is strong when used right
When I was a teenager my dad bought a hovercraft that was 13ft long. It was an old fan boat that had been repurposed into a large hovercraft. The thing was a beast and fun to drive around. We brought it out on a lake several times. Good memories.
Very cool. I only rode a hovercraft once, but that was one of the massive English Channel Hoverspeed ferries from Calais to Dover, in the early nineties, when my parents and me went to Britain for vacation. Good memories there too, I was over the moon getting to ride that even once as a kid!
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoverspeed
Your dad shouting "BANG!" was a classic dad move 😂
5:35
Your dad is a legend. He needs to be in more videos. Such dad energy, clearly an absolute 1st class chap. Also DIY perks!!! Best collaboration on RUclips. Incredible scenes.
As a man about the same age as your dad, I remember the hovercraft plans that they used to sell in the back of comic books and kids magazines. The expression on his face truly tells that story. I have driven 180 miles per hour, flown airplanes, repelled out of helicopters and other cool stuff; but I known I would grin ears wide on that DIY hovercraft!
Your dad has only spoken a few sentences, but I already really like him
Having a dad looks so fun! This is the part that got me. 🥰
I'd love to see more of this. Maybe get a sponsor and create a bigger one which has more stability so you can sit more comfortable
This video inspired me to build my own RC hovercraft and I have to say they are by far the coolest vehicle
except maybe ekranoplans
Brilliant as always👍!! We are sooooo proud to partner with you, James!
Let’s do it again!
@@Project-Air Terrific! 🥳🥳
@@Project-Air Can you lend me a trillion billion Dollars? I need to fuck some shit up!
@@PCBWay I think it’s great you guys help out and support project air! Great stuff 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
I love it! I grew up drooling over the hovercraft plans advertised in the back of Boy's Life magazine. I bought them and built one, but the 1980's requirement of using a vacuum cleaner motor plugged into a wall outlet made me dream of making a cordless one.
Gas-powered blowers work great. I assume the battery-powered ones would also be good.
Takes me back to my year 11 at high school days. Was doing a project on hovercrafts for physics. I made a 8x4 ft hovercraft from 3mm plywood. I spent a lot of time on the plenum chamber design. I used a 2 stroke lawnmower motor for the lift motor. Awesome build mate.
wow my school would probably just make me write an essay
I had done a lot of stuff with hovercrafts and have learned that using impellers for the plenum are better as they generate far more static pressure.
Another brilliant colab with DIY Perks done and dusted. Am I the only one now desperately awaiting another colab with Tim Station?
What is this trend of youtube RC makers colabbing to make ride on vehicles?? First RCTestflight and Think Flight, now you guys. It's awesome!
Christopher Cockerell will be smiling down. I’m old enough to remember the mighty SRN4 Super 4s and the ill-fated French N500. With an east wind, you could hear them coming from Calais/Boulogne long before seeing them. Happy memories of visiting my great aunt in 70s Dover. Keep up the good work.
ok that was perfect timing for refreshing youtube main page
The small racing hovercraft also use rudders, but at least some of the steering comes from the driver shifting their weight from side to side. That may give you a little more control.
My dad has always wanted one of these finally he can have one!
I like that I am noticing content creators that started with rc are slowly just making vehicles they can get in. No complaints because it's cool, let's be real
Maybe centrifugal blowers would work better to create the pressure underneath? Although they are probably heavier. Awesome work!
I always love it when James says "What's the worst that could happen?" Great build.
Corner thrusters will help to keep the vehicle on track, and will also help to compensate for terrain that isn't completely level. Also some sturdy fan guards and corner bumpers will help to protect the vehicle and nearby personnel. Nicely done job of "hot gluing your way to a better tomorrow." (Yes, you can use that if you like, with attribution) :)
That is amazing how little power was needed to get it to work so well and RC plane parts even though it broke quite a bit
This chap sounds exactly like ‘diy perks’. Well spoken and we’ll explained. Well done.
Those throttles are BEAUTIFUL
i really like the way you solve problems so quickly and fix it fast
Your videos are so awesome!!
They are so entertaining and fun to watch!
It also teaches me things!
I saw where someone had great success with a full under bag setup with strategic silver dollar sized holes. Appeared to have better lift with similar motors. Of course, comparing apples and oranges, but, also easy to try!
I'm like your dad with the "always wanted to build a hovercraft" dream.
Fantastic! Love it James and Co!
That's so cool, amazing work!
Absolutely brilliant!! Well done, be proud of yourself.👊🏻😎
Awesome video. Id love to see another video trying to go as fast as possible with beefed up rear motors
I used to daydream about making this while on a bus in middle-school 15+ years ago, glad to see you making my dreams come true 😁
Hovercrafts while amazing are finicky and tricky beast but if mastered are insanely rewarding
Great proof of concept model
This is gonna be more amazing if you make this a series. About making some vehicles from scratch
This video demonstrates (over and over) the benefit of weak attachment points. Parts fall off, but they don't break.
Your dad is AWESOME. I too had a really wonderful father. We are lucky people. Damn lucky.
Awesome video!
for steering you can also put ducted fans on the front sides to push it angled. it's the same assisted steering method the royal canadian coastguard uses on their hovercraft
DIY Perks is life.
lol your dad is awesome!
This is fantastic! I've always wanted a hovercraft.
Bro you are so underrated!!!
Really cool fun project. Would love to see a more refined version of this in the future
Man you make things that might become revolutionary to the world I’m not joking at all
I actually watched the ad because I hadn’t seen it before and it was relevant ish to the video and it’s something I’m interested in
Great job! When I was much younger I wanted to build a hovercraft but at that time with internal combustion engines the cost was way too high. Keep up the good work and tweak the machine to get it even better.
Incredible, possibly needs a little more development to be a 'practical means of transport', but Christopher Cockerell would be proud.
This is AWESOME!
I recommend building one!
@@Project-Air This is very tempting if I can think of a spin on your idea for originality
Great! Now fill it with eels.
It would be cool to see a hovercraft / car (or bike) hybrid. Use the fans and skirt to reduce the friction of the wheels when cruising, and drop down onto the wheels for sharper turns.
Great video! And nice Park City sweatshirt. Thats where I grew up!
No way! Didn’t realise that but knew you were a Utah resident. Visited last summer and it was great!
You need differential thrust for the edfs so that you can ride on slanted surfaces. If the surface is slanted, power down half of the craft and power up the other half to tilt the craft for more straight traveling.
That was brilliant man .... thank you
Good work!
I've built a few basic disc hovercrafts out of a vacuum cleaner (indoor, extension cabled) and a leaf blower (gas-powered, outdoor)
That type is fun for kids and you kind of play a giant game of air hockey pushing them across tennis courts and that sort of area.
Yours is much more of a vehicle and seems to have good lift. Way to go.
Amazing video bro
i get so happy when i see a new upload here c:
Great video! Looks like you all had ton of fun building and riding it together. I wonder if you could use thrust vectoring with your dual prop setup? Do you know about how much thrust they each can produce?
Differential thrust*. But yes, this. Would have been easier to just use a rc transmitter and receiver to control it. Then rudder and differential could just be tied together on the TX.
The youtubers are all making boats.
Its like they are competing content against each other.
No complaints, its all brilliant material to watch.
Such a fun project. Really neat seeing how they're made, I might have to try building a small scale RC one at some point.
Amazing project! I think the only thing that it really needs is directional thrust, meaning you steer by changing the direction of the motors rather than moving the rudders.
I'm really amazed at your designs - they're mostly capable and work really well! keep up the effort :)
this is so impressive
You did my suggestion. Nice.
A wonderful invention. You are very well. I follow you from Algeria
Very nice work.
Great build! I love the duct tape engineering! And Thanks for not just 3D printing everything! and actually saying how it’s faster just making it yourself! I still want a printer though lol I highly suggest a gyro it makes hovercraft builds so much easier to fly
pretty cool, imagine it could go even fast if you just installed 2 more propellers!
Brilliant as always!!
Extremely entertaining "big you-tuber style" well edited videos.
Thank you, it was a great watch:)
If you moved the thrust props to the centre of the craft and installed them in ducts, this would give a much better point from which to use them with reversible, differential thrust to instantly stop, go backwards, and have yaw control. The simple way would just be to make a throttle that lets the props spin backwards to blow air toward the front for stopping, and reversing thrust, and or producing yaw. The tricky way, is to take a page out of the helicopter rotor swash plate, and tilting blades page to allow more control. The rudders would still help provide stability in forward flight, and allow for fine yaw control at faster speeds. This is very cool.
Fantastic work, James! Amazing hovercraft!!! 😃
Stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊
That's crazy ! I like this !!!!!
I love hovercraft. I build an RC one from scratch it did not work well but it was fun.
Another great video. Keep up the good work.
I get the feeling the skirt needs a TON more power. It's basically dragging it along, instead of it barely touching the ground. Mind you, I've never built my own hovercraft, but I did have a Tyco hovercraft when I was a kid and I distinctly remember the skirt floating - it'd only drag when the battery got really low.
Yeah the skirt is just to be able to conform to the uneven ground and provide some stability if there’s an imbalance, and it should float a little bit off the ground. It’s the same concept like the board with no skirt, it should float without contacting but the skirts just provide some leeway with bumps and stuff.
Li-ion and brushless motor make almost anything possible!
Nice to see Theon Greyjoy joined force.
I love you're videos.
really cool project!
Bro you're a legend
This is so cool!
Love your vids
Hovercraft is my favorite vehicles
awesome project!
This guy deserves more subs 😍😍
man this brings me back. dad and i found a backpack leafblower on the side of the highway(all smashed up, likely fell off truck) we turned that sucker into a hovercraft. plywood and 6mil plastic
Definitely make that 1st test model a toy, it’d be wildly popular and a hit with the kids (even adults). Lots of money too.
Thats fricking cool! Next time I hope that Matt can try as well(:
My highschool physics teacher made one from a piece of plywood and a leafblower. I don't know if that's cheaper or simpler, but it worked really well.
My dad has also pulled the bang move on me, seems it’s universal🤣
That's really cool that your dad helped you build this. He sure got a kick out of driving it! I hope you did make him one for Christmas. It would be funny to race them.
I'm actually quite surprised that those trash bags held up to that. Maybe you guys have better ones in the UK or maybe those are the same as the contractor bags we have here. I've never actual bought any of those before so I don't know. I want to buy some eventually because I saw a guy build an entire bushcraft bed out of them and some logs, which seemed cool.
As an experiment, if I did this, I would just use two 4' diameter inner tubes instead of making a skirt. I was quite impressed by this build.
Jerry rig in a differential thrust to help on turning, build a landing gear that can take the hard landing of cutting off the power suddenly and so it wont just throw you out in the process, rebuild whole steering system to be more robust, maybe carbon fiber plate, but do build in intentional weak point so whole thing wont be destroyed, build cage around the forwards pushing fans that are tied to mounting plate of the motor, again having that whole thing come out if there is collision, the skirt could be made from two used tractor inner tires cut in halfs and connected again with rubber glue for better durability (and shape for the vehicle) and have baffles to first of all added safety so if one spot gets damaged whole skirt wont inflate instantly and secondly so that air wont move so fast from one spot to another allowing you move bit more off from center of gravity.
Also those ducted fans should be pushing in directly inside the skirt and skirt having holes inside surface closer to chassis, where exhaust air is directed under neat the vehicle and hence only way to exit is below the skirt increasing your lift. This way you have maximum skirt inflation while utilizing and directing the leaks to lift skirts out of the groun. You should also install closed cell foam inside the skirt. Get desired size (by testing and calculating how much weight certain m3 peace can create buoyancy in water) round rod of it , cut it in half and glue it inside the rubber... ou and test it in shallow water to see if it floats before going into deeper water.. beats having to dive to get your hover craft bottom of the lake. Foam is covered inside, while also acting as mentioned landing gear depending on stiffness of the foam, it keeps frame from contacting the ground, while also lifting the edge of the skirt off the ground, so wear and damage is located below, not on the edge where it connects to frame.
Just few things to consider for V2. Might want to reread how hovercrafts actually work and those planning on making RC version not much needs to be redone in the design of it, just add the foam flotation, put some tape on the inner side of skirt to reinforce the material you are using or use say bicycle inner tubes, then cut small holes, say by drilling and increase size or number of holes until it wont burst from over pressure. You can build jerry rid measuring device too from peace of clear tube, mount it into board so skirt tube is above it, make U shape, put water into U shape and mark into hose location of water surface. Join other end to skirt by making humps into edge of the tube and pushing it trough one of the holes. WIth more tape you can increase diameter of the tube. Its impractical to get each size hose to fit just right but inner diameter of the tube should be lose as possible to side of hole witch is closest to current hole size Activate your fan or what ever you use and if water spurts out you have way too small holes creating over pressure and if it does not move at all you might have holes too large. With testing find the right size for say 80% max power of the ducted fan, but at full power there should not be noticeable increase in tube diameter indicating potential to burst if scraped by sharp object, but allows to have extra pressure in required condition acting in heavy bumps as shock absorber instead of hitting chassis to ground, but this requires testing to see what is right for intended capabilities.
Must be great growing up in the age of social channels and more advanced/available tech, building projects with friends and family and, learning whilst having such a laugh! You have my sub and bell! Looking forward to seeing more. 👍
It looks nice, If you want longer trial and lower weight, repplace the axial propeller for lifting by radial fan, you will obtain more pressure and consume less power (high pressure low flow = Radial, high flow low pressure = axial).
Nice start to a SEV. A friend of mine use to design hovercrafts or surface effect vehicles to be more correct.
Barry warned me to keep the cushion pressure below 10 lbs per square foot that would be about 50 kg per square meter.
Oh Berry designed the Sevtech hovercrafts about 30 odd years ago... the bag skirt that he uses is more stable then the finger skirt developed in Britain that you are likely familiar with.