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geniusjohn5 wrote:This may sound like a really dumb question but I'm an extreme newbie to this event. Does the hovercraft float on the air-contained skirt or is there a little bit of plain open air beneath the skirt?

The skirt inflates with air, levitating the craft, but the skirt will stay in contact with the surface. That effectively reduces (but does not eliminate) the weight of the craft. And the air escaping through holes in the skirt reduces friction enough to where the propulsion fan can accelerate the vehicle horizontally.

Think of air hockey table - the puck stays on the table, but can slide along with minimal effort because of the little jets of air coming through the table holes. The hovercraft is sort of like an upside down version of that set up.

I hope that analogy is helpful but definitely do a little research - Wikipedia always a great place to start!

geniusjohn5 wrote:This may sound like a really dumb question but I'm an extreme newbie to this event. Does the hovercraft float on the air-contained skirt or is there a little bit of plain open air beneath the skirt?

Some reading here may help.

https://scioly.org/wiki/index.php/Hovercraft#Skirt

We are having good results with a "wall" skirt. Which is basically a bag skirt with one largish square hole in bottom of bag. You want some air escaping out from under the craft.

What is a good cfm for a blower fan?

NilaiVemula wrote:What is a good cfm for a blower fan?

It depends on your design. Some designs are better with a fan optimized for static pressure, others for one with a high cfm.

reed303 wrote:

geniusjohn5 wrote:This may sound like a really dumb question but I'm an extreme newbie to this event. Does the hovercraft float on the air-contained skirt or is there a little bit of plain open air beneath the skirt?

Some reading here may help.

https://scioly.org/wiki/index.php/Hovercraft#Skirt

We are having good results with a "wall" skirt. Which is basically a bag skirt with one largish square hole in bottom of bag. You want some air escaping out from under the craft.

I second the wall skirt... they effectively minimize friction consistently and are easy to build and get working with a bit of creative tinkering. A lot of it just takes messing with the balance of the craft and where to cut larger openings, etc.

Zioly wrote:

reed303 wrote:

geniusjohn5 wrote:This may sound like a really dumb question but I'm an extreme newbie to this event. Does the hovercraft float on the air-contained skirt or is there a little bit of plain open air beneath the skirt?

Some reading here may help.

https://scioly.org/wiki/index.php/Hovercraft#Skirt

We are having good results with a "wall" skirt. Which is basically a bag skirt with one largish square hole in bottom of bag. You want some air escaping out from under the craft.

I second the wall skirt... they effectively minimize friction consistently and are easy to build and get working with a bit of creative tinkering. A lot of it just takes messing with the balance of the craft and where to cut larger openings, etc.

I'm curious as to what you mean when you say "where to cut larger openings." From my limited experience last year, all we did was create a large rectangle centered on the bottom of the skirt so the air escapes evenly from underneath, and that seemed to work fine for us atleast.

Hello! I'm new to this forum, and even scioly itself.

What times and weights have you been getting with yours? I'm having trouble getting mine to lift. I'm using a small axial fan for lifting and blowing. it's about 30cmx20cm.

-randomperson11

Randomperson11 wrote:Hello! I'm new to this forum, and even scioly itself.

What times and weights have you been getting with yours? I'm having trouble getting mine to lift. I'm using a small axial fan for lifting and blowing. it's about 30cmx20cm.

-randomperson11

Hi Random Person

First off...welcome to the forums. And... thanks for practically copying my username.

We are holding all they weight, but are getting overloaded on thrust. Mainly, a good experimentation for fans and motors is the most important. And make sure that your design is efficient as possible. We've built 3 prototypes already.

Even though the width of the track is much wider, which means the Hovercraft is expected to be much wider, would a significantly smaller Hovercraft, such as something from last year's Hovercraft event, be effective this year? And would "hugging" the sides of the track work effectively?

random HUMAN, if you're comfortable sharing with me, what fans are you using to blow? also what base design?

I'm just using a bag under it that covers everything up. we have problems not getting air to leak :\