Our Hovercraft inflated with nothing on it certainly could look like a vehicle that one may “ride”, but we believe we could have done several things differently. Such as: using a lighter material instead of plywood for the base and the nailed down square we had in the middle of the tarp, a more durable tarp, and a better sealant for the tarp. A cordless leaf blower would have also let us improve our maneuverability. There are some ideas in change of design that we have talked about completing soon. The first being the location of the hole in the plywood. In our first design, the hole and blower location were located towards the front of the craft. Even though we could not tell if this influenced the inflation of the tarp, we believe moving it to the middle may more evenly distribute the air. The only thing that prevented us from doing that at first is the wooden design we created to force the air to the side.

The second design element I believe we could have changed were the actual holes we created. The holes ended up being penciled sized (we stabbed pencils in the tarp to create them), after we used much smaller holes causing the rupture in our seal. We believe that the holes needed to be as close to the center as possible and no where near the edges. We most likely had holes to close to the edge of the blown up tarp that instead of forcing air on the ground when someone sat on it, it forced the air to blow out to the side and almost deflate. And in future testing we wish to use something like a trash bag or a thicker and more durable, but still near friction-less, tarp.

Regardless, we were sadly affected by Covid-19 and we lost access to working together and testing in gyms. Also, with an increased budget we could have been able to purchase higher end materials to help us construct. I do not want to label this project as a failure, but more as a fun design process that did not reach our goals. We wished to work on it during the summer going into our third year, but our living locations proved to not be feasible enough. Our current Hovercraft is still located at OSU and most likely will be while we enter our Fall semester. Even though the project has come to an end, my group and I will always have the Hovercraft and I am positive that we will revisit and constantly wish to improve upon what we have so far. Our end goal has now changed from something that can support a human, to something that we can show to job recruiters/other peers and be proud of that we took the time to really use our major to create something while being outside the box.

In my last update, we were facing several struggles adding weight to the hover craft. We then realized that the size of the holes we punctured underneath the craft may have been to large. We punched around dime sized holes in the shower curtain to allow the craft to actually hover. The holes we previous had were about the size of a pencil and it just wasn’t enough to get off the ground. By creating larger holes we were able to not only inflate, but also lift the wooden sheet wood off the ground. When we began to add weight, the air that was being propelled from the blower into the air-chamber began to release out through the holes and the wood would slowly go to the ground. We decided if we had more smaller holes the craft may be able to absorb more weight. we approximated it as is to be able to hold around 100 lbs. currently. We will need to buy a new shower curtain if we want to fix the holes or tape over them. This final change will be discussed in the conclusion.

After we purchased the materials, the building phase commenced. We used the OSU work shop lab as a resource to assist us in cutting, screwing and putting together our first model. With the help of supervisors at the lab, we used a CNC machine to turn our rectangular plywood into an oval shape. It was great experience for us to watch how a CNC actually works and how taking measurements are key when entering them into the system. We also had to cut a perfect circle with the diameter of our PVC pipe into our wood to allow air flow from the blower.

Our next goal was to cut the shower curtain, which will act as our air chamber, in such a way that it fits comfortably and even around the wood. Once we positioned the wood on the curtain, we folded the edges and began stapling, cutting, and taping down the edges. We decided to puncture a few test holes into the tarp about the width of a pencil and fill the chamber with air. To no surprise, the tarp blew off and the staples and tape came un-done. We didn’t have nearly as much holes as we thought we would need. Once we added more holes we were able to fill the chamber with the blower and have it “hover” on its own. It could not carry the weight of a person yet and we will look into creating more holes or patching ones that allow too much air out when pressure is added. These updates will be available in Update Post #2.

As we began brainstorming for our Capstone we crossed several potential ideas until we came across the hovercraft. I will include the YouTube link of the video that sparked our inspiration and that we tried to re-create. After viewing and breaking down the video we created a “shopping” list of materials that we needed which included: leaf blower, plywood, tarps, and PVC piping. In our first meetings we had to make decisions such as plastic or wood, or how high of power leaf blower we needed. A lot of these decisions ended up being the most cost effective due to us trying to stick to a strict budget while still creating a functioning vehicle. The next step was to begin to design our vehicle in SolidWorks and get a better understand of certain dimensions and overall shape. After we purchased the materials we were able to physically measure the dimensions of the wood plywood and determine where to cut the tarp. Once we put together the tarp and wood, we will be able to hook the blower up to the vehicle and begin to determine lift force and if the weight of the wood proved to be to much. Testing will need to take place by adjusting the power of the leaf blower and the amount/size of holes we place in the tarp to allow the air to leak out. These results will be explained in Update Post #1.

For our Capstone project, we wish to create an affordable, compact hovercraft like vehicle that could potentially hold the weight of the average human. Myself, Alex Borla, and Nathan Cathell are all mechanical engineer majors working on this feat. We will use our knowledge of friction, air resistance, and forces to create the vehicle. Our budget is approximately $150 for the whole project, which will force us to limit our materials and make cost effective decisions. We chose this topic because it will force us to design, plan, and test various ideas while also using resources such as the wood working shop at OSU. We believe we will be able to easily reach the 40 hour mark due to the extent of the build and testing that will need to take place. Our breakdown of how this idea can be turned into reality will be explained in the planning post.