Resurrection

A few years have passed, and this blog kind of fell into disuse. No, I never did build the craft I was planning... It's still a collection of ideas floating around in my head. However, with my recent graduation from school, I a) have a bit more free time to burn, and b) have the prospect of living in a place with a garage, so the time has come to revisit the design of a second generation hovercraft. The basic idea is still a 12 to 15 foot-long craft, with a tapered bow that is squared off. However, the plans for the drivetrain, powerplant, hull construction, and superstructure have all changed.

The hull dimensions will be determined by the powerplant selection. Ideally I would like to find a lightweight 4-stroke engine in the 45 to 60 hp range, but this is in the awkward place between lawnmower-type engines and car engines. One possibility is a geo metro 3-cylinder engine.

Instead of having a separate lift engine I am planning to use a belt driven lift fan. Some type of automatic speed governor on lift engine speed would be ideal, but I haven't given this much thought.

After doing a bit of reading I decided to shift away from the extruded polystyrene insulation foam as a core material, and use a structural foam or other engineered core material. I'm still doing a bit of research to see what would best meet my needs, but so far structural foams are looking very promising.