Since the last update I have been really busy with the craft.

The decks have been fully reinforced, sealed and bonded to the hull. I have started to fill in the gaps between the pannels but I am not going to fuss with this untill I come to prepairing for paint.

This photo shows the craft on the drive just after it was flipped over (I had it inverted to allow me to reach through the air feed holes and fibreglass the inside of the plenum/deck joins....The air feed holes are 70mm diameter...my hand is bigger than that...hence why it looks like I have had my hand inside a toaster.

Now that the majority of the constuction is complete I made a frame and tipped the trailer that until now the hovercraft had been standing on on its side to give me more room inside the garage to start fitting components to the hull.

I cut out a giant woooden disk (925mm) and pressed it into my duct, I then tied a section of rope around the duct and filled it with resin and then fibreglassed over it. Hopefully when I pop the wooden disk out of the duct the thing will stay round to allow me to run the smallest tip clearence possible on the ends of the fan blades. (about 4-5mm is what im aiming for)

 

I left the duct standing on the floor for 2 weeks to make sure it was fully set before I moved it into position on the hull.

 

The duct is now bolted to the plenum around the bottom third of the duct, the sides will also be supported by ply fillets and foam when I get round to it.

 

The rectangular wooden bar across the back of the duct area is where the variable splitter plate will eventualy be bolted. It also serves to stop water flooding into the craft should I get water on the deck.

This photo shows the fan frame setup with a fanshaft sitting in it. This was manily to help me figure out he next stages.

Its quite sad really but these two bits of wood are possibly the most challenging parts of the hovercraft, they took a lot of thought and I am really pleased with them.

What are they?

Well they are there to hold the engine and fan frame to the floor, if they are not strong then all hell will break loose!

The large red bits of steel will be bolted directly to the botom of the engine. Between them and the wooden rail are four rubber mounts to cut down vibration from the engine.

You can also see the bottom of the fan frame sitting on its steel spacers....Honestly it was suposed to be like that I didnt accidentaly design the fan frame 40mm to small........*cough*

No, this is not a joke! That really is a handbrake lever bolted to the side of my seat.

It is to opperate the variable splitter plate. If you look really closley at the rear of the lever you will see the cable snaking off into the side of the seat.

 

[like all the photos on this website you can click on them to make them bigger if you want to see more detail]
   
  Thats about it for now but work is progressing really quickly now...I will try and update this weekly rather than randomly from now on. (24th august 2005)