I know that every mans has wanted one of these as a child, and even as an adult. RC cars are one thing and the can be quite cool especially when you leave the electric world and build an RC that is gas powered. The sheer power and excitement that you get is beyond imaginable. The fact that you can control it via remote makes it even cooler as you can see all the action from outside – it is like playing a real life rally game. RC hovercrafts are a step up from this since they can basically work on any surface, and you are not limited to being on solid ground, but you drive them over water and on rough surfaces also. Sometimes they do experience problems with uneven surfaces but that is not something to worry about.
There are all kinds of model hovercrafts around, but basically they all work on the same theory and that is simple. They are created in a manner that creates a wide sole for the machine that is flat and has edges or some kind of softening material, that can be thought as bumbers in all sides of the vehicle. This makes it possinble for the hover mechanism to create a pressure under the vehicle so that it can literally float on air at all times. Also there will be some ground contacts every now and then, and that is where these rubbers act as bumbers to prevent your vehicle from cracking. Think of them as wheels in your RC truck. If you want to make RC hovercraft then you are in for quite a challenge because building one from scratch can be quite difficult. Not only do you have to get the design correctly, but also you will have to make proper plans.
The very essence for a hovercraft RC to work properly is that the balance between the upwards pushing force and the forward pushing force is correct. You will have to have one or more fans blowing air through the vehicle under it. They are going to create the floating force, the pressure under the craft, that keeps it in air – you don’t want it to fy aways but instead just float around nicely, and that is where it comes to fine tuning these engines so that they deal with the weight of the craft properly. Remember that each time that you add something to the vehicle you will need to re-adjust the power for these as the balance always changes. The best way to go would be with to motors lifting the vehicle – the rear fan would be just to help a little, since the head of the vehicle needs to be higher than the behind. Many successful rc hovercraft kits come with just one floating fan, as they are properly set up so that the aerodynamics below the vehicle keep the air flowing properly.
You can also set the throtte fan – that pushes the vehicle forwards – to be mounted so that it blows a little bit downwards, but if you do this, you will need to set the floater to increase power when you go faster. The homemade RC-hovercraft is difficult to set up properly, and it takes a lot of time. To be honest I would suggest you to buy RC-hover-craft plans if you want to make it yourself, as it can greatly make your life easier. Think about it – planning can be nice but in the end if you don’t have a lot of experience in aerodynamics then it is going to be difficult and near impossible to get it working properly. It is totally different than with RC cars since with them you can just pick up a box, slap some wheels on it and an electric motor and you are done. Just slap a radio receiver and buy a radio controller and you are ready to run it. For the beginners, I would suggest you to buy an RC hovercraft ready made, and not worry too much about it. If you are really handy, then you can consider making one but I would get ready made plans for that.
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