Frisbee Hovercraft

Here's a neat quick project that Jacob really likes. It's something I tried as a kid, and reproduced now. It's simply a frisbee with a hole cut in the centre. The motor and fan from a defunct hairdryer is hot glued in the middle, and a skirt is provided to help the hovercraft navigate uneven surfaces.

Originally we ran with no skirt. It works, but only over smooth surfaces like linoleum or harwood. It didn't run very well over carpet. So we tried a variety of different skirt materials taped onto the hovercraft. A stiff vinyl from an ESD safe bag worked nicely to raise the hovercraft up high, but wasn't flexible enough to go over bumps. Since it had minimal contact with the ground though, it was virtually frictionless. The latest skirt is a ripstop nylon that's been tape around. We don't inflate the skirt, so it isn't as efficient as it could be. In the last photo, you can see it hovering. A slight touch is all that's needed to send it skittering around.

The power supply is 12VDC provided by 8 AA batteries.

Things to do: self contained power with a 3 cell Li-Po pack (light and good energy density), an optimum skirt, and some means of directional control.

For now it gets tugged about the floor by its leash. As a side note - I initially tried the fan unit from a CPU cooler - a 5VDC brushless DC unit. It was pretty wimpy. Thankfully one of Natalie's hairdryers had recently fried a heating element, so it's fan unit was ripe for the picking.

Kyle