Making a hovercraft that will hold one or more people is relatively easy. The materials are easy to find, and assembly is not difficult, given you don’t mind working with saws and wrenches. The hovercraft we made was in response to a final physics project. With the help of my professor, Dr. Tompkins, we now have a fine, working example of a homemade hovercraft.

What is the purpose of a hovercraft?

With a hovercraft, you can create a frictionless surface on witch to ride. It also demonstrates the force of air pressure, and if you’re really into it, you can measure that. It also is really fun to ride and know that you are hovering above the ground.

How do I build one?

Materials:

½ to ¾ inch plywood

3/8 x 1 ½ inch carriage bolts and nuts

flat washers

one commercial grade shower curtain

an old chair seat

leaf blower

2 ½” PVC cap, or whatever size fits the nozzle of your leaf blower

1 ½” foam rubber pipe insulation

paint can drip catcher

duct tape

staple gun

optional spray paint

Note: When bolts are used, the head of the bolt should be on the underside, and the nut on the top.

1. Base: Cut a 4’ diameter circle out of the plywood. Sand the edge, especially the under side of the edge so that it is not abrasive on the skirt. Drill the holes needed to attach the seat and the air inlet hole. Sand these edges also. Most tears in the skirt result from abrasions caused from the plywood, not from things that it accidentally hovers over. When the disc has smooth edges, it can be painted. I painted ours blue with lighter swirls, to resemble wind.

2. Preliminary assembly: When it has dried, attach the PVC cap to the disc. Note that the actual cap will have to be cut out, so that the air can go through. The purpose for this piece is to provide stability for the leaf blower. We attached ours with four carriage bolts, which were pre-drilled on the cap. We then attached our seat. We took the seat from an old school chair that was broken. We used the bolts that were already on the chair to attach it. The seat should be placed in the center, so that when a person rides, his/her center of gravity will be over the craft’s center, keeping it symmetrical. Once the chair is attached, the center hole should be redrilled, so that it goes through the bottom of the chair.

3. The Skirt: We used a commercial grade shower curtain. This gave us the width we needed, along with a heavier grade plastic. Several sources said to cut this circle 1’ larger than the plywood disc. Instead, using the staple gun, we stapled it to the disc first leaving about a ½” of play all around. Try to staple it uniformly all around so that it is symmetrical when inflated. Try to put a staple about every 4”. To keep the skirt uniformly distributed around the disc, we stapled a pleat about every other staple. When it is stapled all the way around, trim off the excess of the curtain. Then, with about 8-10” strips of duct tape, seal the edge of the curtain to the plywood. Go all the way around with the duct tape. I burnished the tape with the head of a hammer to create a good seal.

4. The Underside: The craft should be flipped over, and the paint drip catcher attached. This disc may be too large; we cut ours down to about 8”. Our sources said to use a large coffee can lid, but our experiences using them have proved them too flimsy. The paint catcher provides much more stability. Make sure that after you cut it down to sand the edges smooth. A hole must be drilled through the center of this disc also. Attach this disc to the plywood, catching the curtain in between. Use a stack of washers for this one so that it is a clean, tight connection. This part pulls the center of the skirt up to create the billowing donut effect. Make sure that the skirt is relatively even all around, so that the air will be distributed evenly.

5. Once this is attached, the air exit holes should be cut in the skirt. We used a three-hole pattern. Each hole was 2” in diameter, and they were each 6 ½” from the center bolt spaced evenly. They should be placed so that the air inlet hole is in between two of them, and not directly flowing to one of the holes. We first, marked their positions, put a layer of duct tape, and then cut the hole through the plastic and duct tape. Once the holes were cut, I reinforced the cuts with duct tape, carefully preserving the circular shape of the hole.

The Underside of the Hovercraft

6. The Leaf Blower: The nozzle may have to be sawed off so that the actual blower fits just above the PVC cap. The nozzle will probably end up being about 3” long. A hack saw works very well for this. Depending on the size of the leaf blower nozzle and the size of the hole in the PVC cap, you may have to put a layer of caulking to make it have a more snug fit. Once the leaf blower is in, wrap a layer or two of duct tape to seal the connection.

7. The Bumpers: Use 1 ½” foam rubber pipe insulation. The kind with adhesive already on it is easiest to use. Two 6’ lengths of them should just barely make it all the way around. It is best to put them on when the skirt is inflated. The insulation should be on the edge, so that if it bumps something, it does not tear the skirt. In addition, it makes it a little safer without worrying about the skirt being damaged.

8. We used the leaf blower on low, and it is plenty strong enough to make one person, possibly more, hover. We also used a long extension cord for the leaf blower. Because it rides on a very thin cushion of air, be careful of the surface you ride it on. We rode it over marble floor--slick surfaces work best. Concrete or something similar could be too abrasive and puncture the shower curtain.

Have fun riding your new hovercraft!