Hovercraft Group #1

Matt Walker Travis Smith Melissa Huynh Mark Reimer Jason Rubin David Duncan

Design Process
First couple of meetings were spent brainstorming and voting on ideas. Decided to first build a prototype to test ideas on so that we dont have to worry about perfect dimensions and appearance. Final version is the one where we carefully measured everything and used color coordinated materials.

Base Design
1st - Meat packages.
Found that it wasnt aerodynamic enough and the lip wasted the lift by having to fill up a larger volume for the same distance off the ground. Also, it just didnt look that cool!

Base Design
2nd - Pointed Nose

This design was inherently unstable and had issues with directional control.

Base Design
3rd - Rounded Nose

This design proved more stable and much easier to control the side to side motion but it wasnt quite what we needed.

Base Design
Final Design

This final model is the perfect balance between weight and stability. The longer body adds stability and extra room for components.

Number of Fans
Originally, we considered having 2 fans. 1 down for lift and 1 backwards for thrust. Then, we thought about using each fan for both thrust and lift by dividing the air stream. We finally decided to use a larger motor for thrust and a fan for lift.

Really Big Motor!

Number of Fans
Since the new motor and its battery weighed considerably more, we decided to use two fans for lift.

Fan Placement
We originally thought of two fans, one in front of the other. This caused the craft to be unstable and too long. The side by side design gives good stability and allows for a shorter length.
Lastly, we had to move the fans a couple of inches forward because the thrust of the large engine pushes the nose down.

Skirt Design
We considered an open, full, and tubular design.
The tubular design was too complicated. The open design didnt hold enough air in. We finally decided on a full skirt with holes to let some of the air out because it is simple and reliable.

Rudder

We decided to add a rudder because we already had all the parts and it greatly increased the maneuverability and control.

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Learning to steer

Appearance
For the final design, we chose an all black and yellow appearance.
When we looked at the craft from above it reminded us of Pac-man so we decorated accordingly.

Challenges
Greatest challenge was working as a team
Exchanging ideas without stepping on others Not killing each other.

Burning out the smaller motors (we went through 4)

Having the batteries charged when we needed them. The two batteries have different connectors. Shorted out the receiver and had to replace it. Finding the center of gravity.

Equipment List: 2 sheets of core board 5 motors 1 switch 1 battery connecter 1 rudder kit $1.86 $12.50 $2.86 $1.60 $2.10

1 big motor
2 batteries Radio controller and receiver

free
free free

Total: $20.92 OU Engineering: Priceless

FINISH START

QuickTime an d a decompressor are need ed to see this p icture .

Version 1.0

QuickTime an d a decompressor are need ed to see this p icture .

Final Version