H.W.

jim west wrote:

On the step around 20 to 30 MPH, the problem is pushing the beast up on

the step. You

could lift off at 60 to 65 MPH with 125 HP

Paul wrote:

Perhaps pumping air under there with a two cycle engine as suggested by
Howard is the way to go. If the hull is four feet wide and the contact
area is four feet long with a gross weight  of 2400 pounds that is about

one psi.

At 30 MPH or 44 fps and the height above the water was 0.1 inch
you would be shearing off roughly 20 cubic feet per second or
1200 cubic feet of air per minute. How big (physically) of a blower
would we need Howard? Looking in my Grainger catalog I see most
fans won't work at that pressure so we may need compressed
air.

How about a filament wound air bottle pumped up to 1000 psi.
How big of a bottle would we need to say.. supply 50 cubic feet of
air (couple of seconds) at 1 psi? The idea is you get going
as fast as you can and hit the compressed air button to get
yourself up on the step and away you go.

Strong side skirts about 1/4 inch long would
help trap the air and perhaps live through a crabbed landing.

Paul Lamar

Howard Wilkinson wrote:

Jim:
    I'm not familiar with hovercraft technology....... except in
principle.......  It doesn't seem to take a great deal of power or a very
impressive fan to do the job.  Did you check out the Webber page?.... The
link I gave?.........
    I have never researched hovercraft design, but it seems obvious that it
has a potential.....  Perhaps a web search would yield some useful answers.

  

 
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