RC Hovercraft?

[Wabatuckian]

When I was a kid, I had a Typhoon hovercraft:

It was fun, but took forever to charge and didn't run long.

Figuring on improved battery tech, I tried shopping around for a hobby-level hovercraft kit, but don't see any. Just toys.

Am I not looking in the right places, or did they fail to catch on?

 

[Cowboy Yert]

I always wanted one of those Tycos Hovercrafts as a kid.

 

[Jamr]

I have been looking also but decided to print one and make it myself.
https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=hovercraft+3d+print&atb=v358-1&iax=images&ia=images

There are a couple there that look pretty cool.

 

[Chubaka]

If anyone would have one it would be old school Kyosho. They had the blizzard and the Tom's river airboat. Seems right up there alley.

 

[Jamr]

Pretty cool stuff people are printing.

 

[Chubaka]

Pretty cool stuff people are printing.

Just add an 8800kv castle system. cool stuff though.

 

[tudordewolf]

There was a 1/110th scale "Zubr-class" hovercraft model on Hobbyking, can still find it on Aliexpress. I loved the idea of an RC hovercraft as a kid, they are the perfect demo toy for an indoor mall.

It seems to lack the power to hover over water, instead just kind of floating and blowing bubbles through the skirt. Maybe some power upgrades would fix that issue. Edit: Or just moving some weight rearward, it appears to be front-heavy.

 

[tntpoof]

any I've seen are Toys.

https://www.rcmodels.org/rc-gadgets/rc-hovercraft/

many are needed in 1:1
they never were a big seller.
Id build your own .Id do US military version.

https://www.techeblog.com/us-navys-...to-sea-in-seconds-here-are-5-more-cool-facts/

 

[Tunedfrog]

There was a 1/110th scale "Zubr-class" hovercraft model on Hobbyking, can still find it on Aliexpress. I loved the idea of an RC hovercraft as a kid, they are the perfect demo toy for an indoor mall.

The videos aren't encouraging though, it seems to lack the power to hover over water, instead just kind of floating and blowing bubbles through the skirt. Maybe some power upgrades would fix that issue.

I'm not sure the rubber-skirt hovercraft concept "works" in miniature. They need exceptionally flat surfaces, perform poorly even on perfectly still water, and grass is out of the question.

They don't seem to perform any better than RC airboats. Most RC hovercraft seems like they would work just as well if the hull were a big block of plain styrofoam with air being blown under it, which is also (perhaps unsurprisingly) a popular design for DIY model hovercraft.

Edit: thinking about it, the problem seems to be that an RC model just doesn't have enough surface area underneath it to "trap" a meaningful cushion of air.

The perimeter:area ratio of a 1/110th scale RC is 110 times worse than on the full sized model, this means the miniature is losing air through the skirt 100 times faster than the full-sized model does, relative to the amount of lift that air provides before it escapes.

Also interesting, a hovercraft must have displacement, in the form of a "depression" in the water underneath it. It makes sense that a miniature hovercraft will struggle to maintain this depression, and instead sink until its own buoyancy through traditional displacement is enough.

Almost seems like this runs better on the bricks than it does the water.

 

[tudordewolf]

Almost seems like this runs better on the bricks than it does the water.

That's true, it does look very realistic even over the somewhat uneven bricks. Good on them to be up-front about its real performance and not conceal that in the video, but I think they could've done more to show us some more hard-surface footage, especially considering that's Hobbyking's own video intended to promote the vehicle.

 

[Tunedfrog]

It's a great looking model regardless.

 

[tntpoof]

not sure what kinda lift that thing has but it needs way more .should float on a cushion of air not be a skirt dragger.

 

[Wabatuckian]

There was a 1/110th scale "Zubr-class" hovercraft model on Hobbyking, can still find it on Aliexpress. I loved the idea of an RC hovercraft as a kid, they are the perfect demo toy for an indoor mall.

The videos aren't encouraging though, it seems to lack the power to hover over water, instead just kind of floating and blowing bubbles through the skirt. Maybe some power upgrades would fix that issue. Edit: Or just moving some weight rearward, it appears to be front-heavy.

I'm not sure the rubber-skirt hovercraft concept "works" in miniature. They need exceptionally flat surfaces, perform poorly even on perfectly still water, and grass is out of the question.

They don't seem to perform any better than RC airboats. Most RC hovercraft seems like they would work just as well if the hull were a big block of plain styrofoam with air being blown under it, which is also (perhaps unsurprisingly) a popular design for DIY model hovercraft.

Edit: thinking about it, the problem seems to be that an RC model just doesn't have enough surface area underneath it to "trap" a meaningful cushion of air.

The perimeter:area ratio of a 1/110th scale RC is 110 times worse than on the full sized model, this means the miniature is losing air through the skirt 100 times faster than the full-sized model does, relative to the amount of lift that air provides before it escapes.

Also interesting, a hovercraft must have displacement, in the form of a "depression" in the water underneath it. It makes sense that a miniature hovercraft will struggle to maintain this depression, and instead sink until its own buoyancy through traditional displacement is enough.

My Typhoon sure worked really well. It ran best on gymnasium floors, but ran almost all well on water -- it didn't drag the skirt. It was also really fast, but took a while to reach top speed.

It definitely out-performed that thing in the video.

 

[tudordewolf]

My Typhoon sure worked really well. It ran best on gymnasium floors, but ran almost all well on water -- it didn't drag the skirt. It was also really fast, but took a while to reach top speed.

It definitely out-performed that thing in the video.

That's encouraging to hear, I may have been too cynical.

 

[Vagabond]

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2700850

 

[DeepLCG]

Those Tyco's take me back. Hovercraft could make a decent recovery boat.

 

[Armysolo]

I recently bought a green Typhoon 2 off Ebay. Everything worked and the bladder was still intact. Cost me $50 and it's been driving my dogs crazy

 

[Roog]

When I was a kid my dad used to pester me to go to the local lending library to get me to read literature. It was a good idea of course, except I discovered loads of really interesting books on model making printed during the 1940’s and 50,s. Very little on RC but wow they made assorts of guided and unguided boats, cars, planes, and hovercraft, they seemed to have something of an obsession with them, new technology I guess!

I must see if I can track down some plans, they used small IC engines for lift

 

[CrunchyM5k]

In 2008 some company called Axon released an RC hovercraft with an EVA foam body/skirt running an EDF for lift and another for thrust. They looked simple and robust, company wasn't around long any maybe a year after its release there was a clone on hobbyking.
https://www.amainhobbies.com/axon-razorback-anti-gravity-racer-receiver-ready-axo101/p32145