Well. When I was much shorter then I am now, I mailed away for some hovercraft info. It had information about joining a national hovercraft enthusiasts Organization, and some drawings about how a home brew hovercraft might work. I was very interested in making a small hover craft, but it wasn't until my first year after college that I got around to making my first prototype. CMU had just gotten a number of large shipments that had come in plywood boxes, and they were giving away the wood. My friend Chris Paris and I snagged quite a bit of it, and I was beginning to think of possible useses for it. Then one night as we were driving to Bonanza to get some dinner when I suddenly remembered my interest in making a hovercraft. Now was the time!
I had scrounged two motors from Hoover upright vacuums, and I mounted them to suck air through holes in the center of a large hexagonal piece of plywood. I affixed 6 radial "feet" to the bottom of the hexagon. I purchased a blue tarp at the hardware store, and I attached it to the perimeter of the hexagon by nailing strips of wood over the tarp, and into the hexagon. I then put 6 smaller strips (shoes) of wood through the bottom of the tarp into the radial feet. I envisioned skimming down the driveway with power being provided by a few extension cords. I wanted to cut some holes in the tarp near the center of the hexagon, so that some air would stay under the skirt to inflate it, and then exit through the holes to provide lift. I then made the serious error of decided in cut the holes in the tarp after first test inflating the skirt. That way I would be better able to judge what size the holes should be. Or so I thought...
So While I stood holding the hexagon upright Mark plugged the HooverCraft(tm) into an extension cord. The motors spun up, and the blue skirt began to fill. Feeling rather like Violet Beauregard I stood there with this enormous blue hexagon swelling up before me, and then there was a "Foom......Foom,fa,fa,fa,FOOM" as all six of the foot long pieces of wood that had formed the "shoes" were pneumatically pried loose and fired across the car port narrowly missing Mark. (Each shoe sporting two fairly long exposed nails.) Phew! No injuries. So I cut the holes, and we tried a lift off. Saddle the skirt didn't make very good contact with the ground, so it didn't provide much sustained lift. I was going to try a different skirt design, but so far I haven't gotten around to it, and that particular HooverCraft has been put out to pasture.
"Since it's invention in 1937 the hover craft has progressed in leaps and bounds... which is what makes it so uncomfortable to ride in."
-I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again
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