Anyone know about buying/making hovercrafts?

[m1spw]

Hi all

Does anyone know of a hovercraft kit supplier. it has to be at least a 2 seater, but most seem to be single seaters. I would prefer a kit for me and my dad to build over this summer (and probably winter) but cost must be reasonable. I don't know what these kind of things cost but a fully built one is on iwantoneofthose.com for £15k.

Any suggestions?

Thanks
m1spw

[anhamgrimmar]

probably not ideal, cos they are american kits/plans, but try

http://rqriley.com/tri-fly.html
or
http://rqriley.com/pegasus.html

anham

[Nevin]

m1spw said:

Hi all Does anyone know of a hovercraft kit supplier. it has to be at least a 2 seater, but most seem to be single seaters. I would prefer a kit for me and my dad to build over this summer (and probably winter) but cost must be reasonable. I don't know what these kind of things cost but a fully built one is on iwantoneofthose.com for £15k. Any suggestions? Thanks m1spw

Feel free to PM me for more information, but I have built an Eagle 1 hovercraft fro scratch with a couple of mates. Dead easy to do and when finished it will get up to 60mph on the flat, which is pretty frightening.

Got to www.hovercraft.org.uk for the Hovercraft Club of Great Britain for tons of info and details of UK kit and plan suppliers.

You can find Eagle at www.kmproducts.co.uk

[lunarscope]

Have you contacted the PH member "CCockerel" ?

I believe he knows a bit about the subject

[KITT]

Out of interest, where can one use such a vehicle? Is it registered as a boat? Do you need a licence? They do look like a lot of fun I must say

[wedg1e]

lunarscope said:

Have you contacted the PH member "CCockerel" ? I believe he knows a bit about the subject

I heard he wouldn't drive one because he's chicken....

[chrisgr31]

Yes best place to go is www.hovercraft.org.uk which is the website for the Hovercraft Club of Great Britain. I actually own a hovercraft and plan to race it next year. Mine was built by my brother in law several years ago. You need to decide what sort of craft you want, a cruiser or a racer. Cruisers are heavier and bigger.

You can buy plans from the Hovercraft club or buy kits from a number of manufactures. Buy a kit and its a mtter of assembling it you can make it from scratch using plywood, but the craft tends to be heavy! It is possible if you can find a mould to make a craft from scratch out of fibre glass, which is the route mt brother in laws go down. Its hard work but significant reward at the end of the day.

As regards where do you drive them when completed thats the difficult bit! Someone I know found themselves being greeted by the Police when they tested their craft on The Thames recently!

The Hovercraft Club do organise some special events every now and again, on land you need to know a friendly landowner who will let you use a filed.

The Hovercraft Club organise a race series, where once you have shown you have the basic ability to control the craft you can go out and race! The next race is at Whittesley near Peterborough on the Bank Holiday weekend. There are different formulas depending on engine size basically. The F1 craft are very quick, and accellerate faster than many cars including some performance models!

Incidentially I understand that there are due to be some Hovercraft on Top Gear this week, doing what I don;t know!

[m1spw]

KITT said:

Out of interest, where can one use such a vehicle? Is it registered as a boat? Do you need a licence? They do look like a lot of fun I must say

I plan to use it either on some private fields or to take it down to a large (normally deserted) beach where lots of people race jet ski's out in the sea. The advantage of a hovercraft is of course that you can drive it along the beach and then go out into the sea.

Thanks for the info guys

m1spw

[vetteheadracer]

I remember building one at school, it came as a kit and used a lawn mower engine. It was basically a set of plans for the cutting of the plywood and material etc.

[Nevin]

We used ours on quiet beaches and a disused airfield. You could take them up tidal stretches of river as well, but you have to be considerate of wildlife and other people, as they are damn noisy.

[Tuna]

From what I've seen you should be able to put a kit together for a grand or so - the more you do the less it costs. The biggest problem is getting a good engine for it. Mower engines will get you a working vehicle, but ideally you want a TZR/TDR 250 bike engine (not sure if there are any more modern equivalents) which will get you into the Formula Three performance bracket, or give you easy (rapid) cruising. Finding a second hand bike engine that hasn't been ragged is difficult, and can be expensive.

70 mph with no brakes... just like some of the cars I've owned.

[GKP]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=1296&item=4564824502&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=1296&item=4564813879&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=1296&item=4564810577&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

Not that I've got this particular ebay page saved in favourites or anything as daft as that, you understand...

[4WD]

£8000 for a bathtub with a mower engine is a joke!

[m1spw]

4WD said:

£8000 for a bathtub with a mower engine is a joke!

No, not just a bathtub....you get a giant fan which makes the bathtub go at 70 mph

[B17NNS]

wonder if a hayabusa engine would work in one of these?

'the hovabusa'

>> Edited by B17NNS on Wednesday 27th July 13:52

[chrisgr31]

Tuna said:

From what I've seen you should be able to put a kit together for a grand or so - the more you do the less it costs. The biggest problem is getting a good engine for it. Mower engines will get you a working vehicle, but ideally you want a TZR/TDR 250 bike engine (not sure if there are any more modern equivalents) which will get you into the Formula Three performance bracket, or give you easy (rapid) cruising. Finding a second hand bike engine that hasn't been ragged is difficult, and can be expensive. 70 mph with no brakes... just like some of the cars I've owned.

Micro light engines are a good bet. Added advantage is that normally they are well looked after for obvous reasons!

[4WD]

That's great, but it's still very overpriced. It's not worth the same as a supra is it?!

[m1spw]

Yeh, they are overpriced. I would MUCH prefer a supra to a hovercraft, but a) I can't drive it, b) it can't go on water and c)it wouldn't be as much fun.

Well actually I don't know if it would be as fun, but hovercrafts look dam good fun

[crossma]

I know its american (and apologies if already mentioned) but www.hovercraft.com has cool videos of flying ones!

[m1spw]