For me, hovercrafts only exist in the land of movies where elephants fly and ducks talk. Until a week or two ago, when a video appeared on my facebook feeds about a Canadian teenager who produced a hovercraft. This is said to be the only working prototype of the hovercraft available in the world(according to the article).
The guy didn't explain the principles behind it's operation(i don't blame him, neither would i), so i did a bit of research. I noticed that someone made a hovercraft which could actually get off the the ground using rocket engine thrusters(dunno if he was trolling though)...his only problem being a loss of control when he tries to lean towards any direction.
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So i brought this here for i and other nairalanders with working brains to figure how this stuff works. Wouldn't be bad if i get a working model for my self.
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Cc: karmanaut dekatron johnydon22 Robinhez teempakguy 5minsmadness and the rest of the geek force

That part got me cracked up!
So it means..we have NLs without working brains..hahahaha!!!

Incorrect:

So i brought this here for i and other nairalanders with working brains to figure how this stuff works.

Er..concerning the video, did the boy actually move? Or he was on a sort of magnetic field?

RobinHez:
That part got me cracked up!
So it means..we have NLs without working brains..hahahaha!!!







Er..concerning the video, did the boy actually move? Or he was on a sort of magnetic field?

lol, he was moving. As i said he didn't tell us the principle behind his motion. He tested it over a body of water so that he would have a soft landing incase it fails. There was obviously a force pushing against the surface of the water though. Now i don't know if he was using motors to push air downwards or something else

I assume the 'Hovercraft' you are referring to is the futuristic kind, the one that probably will run on magnetic energy and it's repelling effect on the earth's natural magnetic field ; not the one depicted in the picture below.

5minsmadness:
I assume the 'Hovercraft' you are referring to is the futuristic kind, the one that probably will run on magnetic energy and it's repelling effect on the earth's natural magnetic field ; not the one depicted in the picture below.

haha, definitely not the one in the picture. I'm probably too scared to death of going near large bodies of water to even try this boat-like version

This is strange, just yesterday midnight, i began drawing up a design for an hoverboard, and this morning, i get this. Shocking co-incidence!

Anyway, i know how the hoverboard works, and frankly, it would be quite obvious to any engineer who got to look at it closesly. I had the opportunity of doing that.

so, i'm assuming you're talking about the omni hoverboard. Which recently broke the guiness world record for longest flight on hoverboard. Hehehe.
Well, THAT board works exactly like an helicopter. It's actually an octocopter. With eight fans. It works by . . . Well, aerodynamic lift. Which is quite a hot concept for me. Honestly, the fact that it works is . . . Awesome, for me. of course, as always, the constraint is power. The powe packs he used could only power the damn thing for a minute. Or so. This is where the atomic battery concept comes in and NO, robinhez, it's not as dangerous as you think.

Since this a brainstorming thread, i should probably mention the other types of crafts. Like the lexus hoverboard. Which uses the cool power of superconductors.

Again, the concept of hoverboards is not out of is world. Their possiblity of success 'hovers' on the amout of power density that we can ever achieve. So, we really should be discussing power. Not novel ways to achieve lift.

I've got kinda a stupid version(The one i use at home): You are holding a very small, light, but powerful magnet in your hand, and the board is also very strong, but not strong enough to pull the smaller one.You
hold on to the small magnet, and since
the hover board is also magnetic, it wants to go up,but your weight is pulling
it down. To steer, you turn your hand the way you want to go.

Teempakguy:
This is strange, just yesterday midnight, i began drawing up a design for an hoverboard, and this morning, i get this. Shocking co-incidence!

Anyway, i know how the hoverboard works, and frankly, it would be quite obvious to any engineer who got to look at it closesly. I had the opportunity of doing that.

so, i'm assuming you're talking about the omni hoverboard. Which recently broke the guiness world record for longest flight on hoverboard. Hehehe.
Well, THAT board works exactly like an helicopter. It's actually an octocopter. With eight fans. It works by . . . Well, aerodynamic lift. Which is quite a hot concept for me. Honestly, the fact that it works is . . . Awesome, for me. of course, as always, the constraint is power. The powe packs he used could only power the damn thing for a minute. Or so. This is where the atomic battery concept comes in and NO, robinhez, it's not as dangerous as you think.

Since this a brainstorming thread, i should probably mention the other types of crafts. Like the lexus hoverboard. Which uses the cool power of superconductors.

Again, the concept of hoverboards is not out of is world. Their possiblity of success 'hovers' on the amout of power density that we can ever achieve. So, we really should be discussing power. Not novel ways to achieve lift.

this is interesting. Kinda sounds like one of the silly ideas that sometimes come into my head where i imagine myself balanced between 2 quadcopters. I'm not surprised that it doesn't last long, this is the same problem which quadcopters/drones face. The longest i've heard a quadcopter/drone last is 30 minutes. SOme other factors to note are the torque of the motors, overcoming air friction, etc This, being a brainstorming thread, is going to solve these problems.
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And please don't mention atomic batteries 'cos i intend to have my grandchildren sit around me while i tell them the story of my youth ...let's just leave the atoms in peace.

Incorrect:
this is interesting. Kinda sounds like one of the silly ideas that sometimes come into my head where i imagine myself balanced between 2 quadcopters. I'm not surprised that it doesn't last long, this is the same problem which quadcopters/drones face. The longest i've heard a quadcopter/drone last is 30 minutes. SOme other factors to note are the torque of the motors, overcoming air friction, etc This, being a brainstorming thread, is going to solve these problems.
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And please don't mention atomic batteries 'cos i intend to have my grandchildren sit around me while i tell them the story of my youth ...let's just leave the atoms in peace.

hehehe, well, look at it this way.
You need an incredible amount of energy to lift a human body. All other methods rely on natural electromagnetic resistance. For instance, if you hold up a person, only a fraction of the needed energy is provided by your muscles. The rest is provided by your bones. That's why it makes sense to hold heavier things closer to the body to ensure that things are supported as well as possible.

Now, in the case of aeroplanes, things are lifted up by using chemical energy from fuels, as well as the power of atmospheric fluid behaviour. This is very high power density in action.
However, in the case of multicopters, the entire energy requirements, including the ones needed to support load is provided by a battery. This is very inefficient. But it looks cool because of vertical take off.

Because of this, in order for multicopter flight to even make sense, we need some extremely powerful power source. I don't think lithium batteries can provide this. At this point, it doesn't even matter the design of your fans or torque or . . . Even the air friction you're stating can actually be an advantage. No matter how much you refine everything else, without changing the power source, all you're going to get is just a few additional seconds in the air. Not feasible. You want something that can last hours in the air. That would be cool and worth buying.

So . . . It is okay to discuss torque and others mainly for engineering kicks, A lasting solution = constant high power source.