Hovercraft Plans

19 Sites Offer Hovercraft Plans

My list is the ultimate list of REAL sites that offer hovercraft plans. Don’t bother with any others. Most hovercraft sites suck. These don’t. A few of them offer plans for sale. A handful offer free plans.

Also, near the end of this post you’ll find a couple of sites offering RC Model hovercraft plans and a few sites I thought you might find useful.

Full-Size Hovercraft Plans

Universal Hovercraft offers many high quality plans for sale for their hovercraft designs: http://www.hovercraft.com

XInventions offers a couple of different plans for sale: http://www.xinventions.com

Father Son Projects offers plans for an interesting low-cost hovercraft: http://www.fsplimited.com/

Michael Nell’s Viper Hovercraft plans for sale: http://members.optusnet.com.au/~nell/plansonly.htm

4Wings Hovercraft site with links to other sites with plans: http://4wings.com.phtemp.com/cat/cat.html

DiscoverHover FREE plans for instructors and students (requires registration): http://discoverhover.org/plans/index.htm

Duckworks, an interesting boat-building site with links to the common plan sites: http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/r/plansindex/hovercraft.cfm

Hovercraft Central, one set of plans for sale and an affiliate program. These are the plans you’ll also find on Squidoo, ezinearticles.com, and other sites: http://hovercraftcentral.com/

Mini-Flyer FREE hovercraft plans for leaf-blower hc, up to 60 lbs. only: http://www.rqriley.com/free-hover.html

ASV Australia Hovercraft site, with plans for sale for their E2 vehicle. Must contact via email or phone for prices: http://www.asv-aust.com/products/kitplans.htm

Eagle hovercraft plans, reasonably priced plans, UK site: http://www.avdw32.dsl.pipex.com/craft__kits.shtml

Future Horizons, hoverboard plans. Not a hovercraft actually, but something like the Back to the Future flying skateboard: http://www.futurehorizons.net/hoverboard.htm

Hovercrafterz, very simple but FREE plans for building a leaf blower hovercraft: http://www.hovercrafterz.com/howtobuildahovercraft.html

You can find the same FREE plans but with a bit more description here: http://www.amasci.com/amateur/hovercft.html

CACC Physics Department, very simple but FREE leaf blower hovercraft plan: http://caccphysics.cacc.cc.al.us/hovercraft_plans.html

Neoteric Hovercraft, commercial hovercraft company sells plans and videos for some models: http://www.neoterichovercraft.com/products/plans_and_videos.htm

Hovercraft-Aircar, plans for sale for a unique design of hovercraft: http://www.hovercraft-aircar.com/

Aeroloire, French site offers FREE plans for one model of hovercraft: http://aeroloire.free.fr/plan_tornado/plans.htm

Hovercraftplans.co.uk offers a plan set for sale, though there isn’t much information on the site: http://hovercraftplans.co.uk/

RC Model Plans

If you’re looking for RC hovercraft model plans, try these sites:

MyHobbyStore, model hovercraft plans for sale, UK site: http://tinyurl.com/2es5ra

Hovercraft Models has RC plans for sale at: http://tinyurl.com/ywf9n6

Other Sites of Interest

David Oakes’ Hovercraft Building Diary, not plans but an excellent blow-by-blow description of building a craft using Universal Hovercraft plans: http://www.geocities.com/oakesdavid/hoverdiary.html

GoHover has a great set of links: http://www.gohover.com/hovercrafting-in-chicago/hoverlinks.html

Hovercollege has a badly designed site, and though I didn’t find plans there, they do sell skirt material for your hovercraft: http://www.hovercollege.com/Order/

ZB Hovercraft claims to have kits and plans in the works, but nothing there yet, except a cool shot of a very nice looking hovercraft: http://www.zbcreations.com/

Important Note: When searching for hovercraft plans, you will find dozens of placeholder sites in the top 300 rankings from Google. Also, there is one site that has a ‘.cn’ domain extension that is extremely unfriendly to children, if you know what I mean, even though its URL is misleadingly titled as having to do with hovercraft plans. I hope that Google and other search engines soon remove that site from their indexes.

Hovercraft Plans from XInventions

I just bought a set of hovercraft plans for the small unit shown on the XInventions.com site. I’m thinking of making it so my grandkids can ride it and to give myself a bit of practice before trying to tackle one of the larger hovercraft plans.

This site has some pretty neat examples of low-cost hovercraft and air cannons. I have no idea what to do with one of those, but the larger hovercraft is also really nifty. The site claims that it can reach 25 miles per hour, which is impressive for a unit that costs less than $100 USD to build. 

The small unit is an upgrade to the leaf blower unit shown on the YouTube video, here. 

Great Hovercraft Plans on Universal Hovercraft

Universal Hovercraft is a fantastic site that offers all types of different hovercraft plans at a reasonable price. The Universal Hovercraft site provides an incredible amount of good information, links, plans, and videos. The company provides both turnkey hovercraft (for those who have ten thumbs or no time to build their own craft) and parts for those of you who are building your own vehicles.

One of my favorite models offered on the Universal Hovercraft site is the UH-18SPW Hoverwing. Absolutely amazing craft! 

Now, to really keep yourself motivated, check out the Homebuilders Showcase. These are real folks like you and me who have built their own hovercraft.  

Foamcore Hovercraft Plans

Check this out. This guy has a cool set of plans for a simple foamcore hovercraft. Get the plans here.

Hovercraft Plans for Norway?

How would you like to go to Norway next year and race your hovercraft? I know I would love it!!!

You can join any of the international hovercraft clubs in over 30 countries throughout the world. More and more people are getting interested in hovercraft, especially in building their own hovercraft. It’s not that difficult. You don’t need an engineering degree. In fact, a bunch of high schools throughout the U.S. are starting hovercraft projects to teach students more math, physics and engineering skills.

The World Hovercraft Federation hosts an annual international race and Norway has petitioned to host the race in 2008.

You still have time to build a hovercraft, learn how to drive it, join a club, and get into a few races. Who knows? You might find yourself visiting Norway to compete in the World Hovercraft Federation race in 2008!

First though, you’ve got to get started either buying or building your own hovercraft. You can buy one for a few thousand dollars. Or, you can buy plans for a LOT less than that. Basic building skills are all you need to put one of these things together. You can find plans here!

Even the Little Folks Get into Hovercraft

Something about getting your hands on a set of hovercraft plans and building your own hovercraft just stirs the juices, doesn’t it? Even small children are fascinated by the possibilities of air-cusioned flight. Check out the photograph above from the Westford Eagle, from Westford, Massachusetts.

According to Kathleen Kirwin, a staff writer for the Westford Eagle, “…at the Westford Academy, kids have the chance to design and build various items based on scientific topics. As his club mates watch, Kadar Qiam, 9, of Westford, uses a blow dryer to demonstrate that his hovercraft really works. He blows the air down a tube where it lifts the craft off the floor and makes it very easy to maneuver.”

Hovercraft Plans in Curriculum, Get Yours Now!

So, I started doing some research on the students who built the hovercraft in Connecticut. Teacher Jim Benini teaches a Principles of Technology class at the Parish Hill High School in Parish Hill, Connecticut.

As a class project each year students build a working hovercraft.

Now get this! Benini has now completed a full curriculum and makes it available for other high school teachers who might want to expose their students to a hands-on education in mechanical, fluid, electrical, and thermal systems. The curriculum includes the basic process teachers need to follow to help their students build a real hovercraft.

If you’re a teacher, please consider doing something like this! With the loss of so many industrial arts programs throughout the country, we are fast losing our edge in engineering and technology education. This program created by Jim Benini can help get kids excited about learning math and science again!

Get the curriculum here!

Hovercraft Plans Give Parish High Students a Lift

Man, I love reading these stories about kids building their own hovercraft. I get excited just like I was a kid again thinking about it. Go to the Popular Mechanics site and read this short article about a group of students at Parish Hill High School, who built a hovercraft as part of a school technology education class. You can do it too, if you really want to! Check out these cool Hovercraft Plans.