Build a simple hovercraft

Okay, this is not an RC project. But it does involve a scratch-built flying machine. I woke up one morning and thought to myself, "How can it be 2013 and I still don't own a hovercraft?" Actually what really happened was that I had a piece of 1/2" plywood (actually OSB) on saw horses for a different project and I set my leaf blower on it after doing some yard work. Then like lightning it hit me that I could probably make a pretty sweet hovercraft.

After some quick Googling I found this and several other how-to videos. Here is the basic build. 

First cut a 4 foot circle out of 1/2" OSB to form the hovercraft deck.
Cut another, smaller (about 8") circle out of the scrap.
Cut a small hole in the deck to fit the outlet of you leaf blower.
Cover the bottom of the deck with a Heavy Duty (8 gauge PEVA) shower curtain liner to act as a skirt.
Overlap the skirt to the top of the deck, cut to fit, staple and duct tape liberally.
Screw the small circle of wood to the center of the bottom of the deck.
Reinforce the area with duct tape and cut six 2" holes arrayed around the center.
Add some pipe insullation around the outside for safety or something.
If needed, put some sort of mounting bracket on the deck to keep your leaf blower in place. I built a little bracket out of scrape OSB.

Here is a photo of the bottom with the gas leaf blower I use. The blower is a 2-stroke 28cc.

Here is the top. I could probably make this a bit neater by cutting the skirt closer to the edge.

And here is my test pilot wearing his special saftey gear.

And here is a short video of the results.

This was a fun 1-hour project with my kids. The total cost was only about $10 since I had most of the stuff already lying around. The craft has plenty of hover power to support a child. It actually only needs part-throttle to work. I may try to bleed off the rest of the air to get some thrust and steering.

That's it. Thanks for reading.