SST
Hovercraft
Website
The First Hovercraft
The Second Hovercraft
The Sixth Hovercraft
1st Pics Here!
SST Hovercraft Creators
Stephen, Sami, and Thomas
        After many plans drawn, ideas thought out, experiments tested, and many Home Depot trips, we three teenagers constructed not one, not two, but five hovercraft.  The first hovercaft was a prototype, meant only to justify our hopes of building a fully functional self-propelled hovercaft.  After six months of hard work and some comic relief to keep us sane, we ended up with the second hovercraft. 
          Built with wood, PVC, a little blood, and a lot of duct tape, the hovercraft measures 4 ft wide, 6 ft long, and a tad under 5 ft tall.  During our work, we became familiar with metal braces, gloss, duct tape, PVC, engine maintenance, electric drills, and saws (perhaps a little too familiar with the last two).  Equipped with a 4 hp engine, two leaf blowers, and a 36 inch wooden propeller, the hovercaft was able to obtain  speeds up to 15 mph in test runs.  Its acceleration is calculated to be 1 mph/s.  The hovercraft is capable of speeds greater than 15 mph, but due to safety concerns and personal experiences, we have decided not to exceed that speed.  We calculate that the hovercraft would continue to accelerate to a specified unknown speed at which it would would encounter air resistance equal to its acceleration, thus effectively ceasing its acceleration.  The hovercraft's pilot has the ability to set the hovercraft's acceleration and direction, and can stop the hovercraft within a reasonable distance. 
        We are currently developing our sixth hovercraft, a new design for a hovercraft that incorporates the tip of the cutting edge technology such as reverse thrust and some of our own new technologies. This design includes two engines: a 4 hp Honda horizontal shaft  thrust engine and our newly acquired 6.25 hp Tecumseh Vertical Shaft lift engine for which we are attaching a four bladed lift propeller from Universal Hovercraft. With this design we will implement our new technologies to further our goal of making a hovercraft as capable if not more capable than a car.

Coming Soon:

New Hovercraft Ideas in Progress






Last Updated:
June 22, 2005

The Hovercraft in Action
Design and Development
The History of Our Hovercraft
Meet the Creators Page
1st Place Bonnabel Science Fair 2004 and 2005
2nd Place Engineering Division UNO Regional Science and Engineering Fair
Chosen to represent the City of New Orleans in the Intel International Science Fair
4th Place LSU State Science Fair 2005