Hovercraft Prototype

thingiverse

Inspired by Iwo's ducted cooling fan design on Thingiverse, a printable hovercraft concept emerged. Initially, a classic hovercraft layout with a rear-placed fan for thrust and split airflow directed to the skirt through ducts was attempted. However, insufficient air supply led to a redesign featuring a single fan exclusively powering the skirt, ensuring near-straight airflow from the fan into the skirt. Although this new design achieves higher airflow, it still struggles with providing sufficient pressure for the skirt inflation and hover-gap creation. The creator feels that a cooling fan's limit is being reached and plans to redesign it with an outrunner motor in future. To encourage others to try, the prototype design, fully parametric, is shared along with the Inventor file. Note: This design was created using an Educational version of Inventor, affecting its usage limitations.