Light hovercraft powered by electric ducted fans

[artemis12]

I'm trying to make a light hovercraft powered by electric ducted fans that will have enough thrust to lift me like 10 feet off the ground. the only problem is I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I"M DOING. can anyone help me?

i weigh 134 pounds, and the craft will weigh around 50-80. that puts the weight without the batteries and fans at 184-214 pounds. i know i need more thrust than what the object weighs to get it to float higher, but the fans will weigh a lot also, won't they? so I'm guessing i need more than 250 pounds of thrust. Anyone know how much thrust, voltage, amps, and horsepower i need to float a 214+ pound object 10 feet off the ground?

 

[Danger]

Welcome to PF, Artemis.
You're not going to get a hovercraft 10' off of the ground no matter what you do. Huge commercial vehicles with turbine engines don't lift that far. The whole point of a hovercraft is to just skim the surface.

 

[lzkelley]

Hovercrafts only work because they are so close to the ground.
When you get farther away you switch from a hovercraft to a helicopter -> which requires tremendously more airflow and therefore more power.

 

[artemis12]

oh. ok

 

[motomax99]

is 45lbs too heawy for the deck of my HC?

 

[motomax99]

has anyone ever made a one engine hovercraft here!?

 

[russ_watters]

is 45lbs too heawy for the deck of my HC?

We have nowhere near enough information to answer that question - we know nothing about your hovercraft!

 

[motomax99]

sorry my dad told me that too, i have a one engine split thrust hc with a yamaha 440 snowmobile and i way about 130lbs

 

[motomax99]

Welcome to PF, Artemis.
You're not going to get a hovercraft 10' off of the ground no matter what you do. Huge commercial vehicles with turbine engines don't lift that far. The whole point of a hovercraft is to just skim the surface.

thats not exactly true you should check these out: http://video.google.com/videosearch?hl=en&q=hoverwing&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=iv#

 

[russ_watters]

Very cool hybrid craft, but what gets that craft a few feet off the ground isn't the hovercraft mode, it's the ground-effect airplane mode. Danger is absolutely correct: a standard hovercraft is limited to mere inches of altitude, inherrent in the design.

Btw, moving this to the aerospace forum.

 

[mshinavar]

mythbusters made hovercrafts from everyday objects, maybe watch that episode