How Hoverboards Will Work

It's really amazing how simple a hovercraft is. In fact, you might have all of the components for building a simple hovercraft in your house right now. Whatever components that you don't have can be purchased at a local hardware store. Here's a list of everything you need to put together a homemade hovercraft:

This Web site walks you through all of the steps of building a simple hovercraft. Children should ask for their parent's permission before attempting to build a hovercraft on their own.

When you've finished your hovercraft, you should have a vehicle that has a piece of plywood skirted with a piece of plastic and a vacuum cleaner or leaf blower sticking through a hole in the plywood so it can blow air underneath the craft. When you turn the motor on, the plastic skirt will fill up with air and the hovercraft will rise off the ground. Depending on how airtight it is and how much air is discharged into the skirted chamber, it will rise several inches to a couple of feet above the ground. It's really pretty cool, if it's done right.

Commercial hovercraft operate just like your homemade hovercraft. They usually have an oval or rectangular platform, a motorized fan and a large skirt material to trap the air underneath the vehicle. This air cushion underneath the hovercraft is called the plenum chamber. This plenum chamber is formed by the bottom of the craft and the skirt material. The air flowing into the plenum chamber will form a ring of air circulating around the base of the skirt to insulate the air cushion from the lower pressure air outside the skirt. This ring of air keeps the air under the craft from escaping.

Most large hovercraft have a large propeller attached to the back of it to propel it forward. Rudders attached to the propeller's housing allow drivers to steer the vehicle. On some smaller hovercraft, steering is performed by the driver leaning left or right. Steering a hovercraft is a little tricky: There's no contact with the ground, so steering the craft will feel slippery. In order to stop the vehicle, you just have to slow down the engine and the craft comes to a rest on the ground. One problem with driving a hovercraft is that the faster you go, the harder it is to maintain the cushion of air underneath the craft.

The Airboard is just a small version of a conventional hovercraft that is ridden standing up. It uses the same air cushion principles to glide just above the ground. However, there are some differences between a conventional hovercraft and the Airboard. For instance, the Airboard is unable to hover over water like other hovercraft, and it uses a drive wheel, which touches the ground, to accelerate. Here's a look at all of the components that make up the Airboard:

The fan underneath the shell of the vehicle provides both a cushion of air and a stream of air that exits through the back of the vehicle to provide thrust. To accelerate, the rider shifts his or her weight forward to allow more air to exit the back of the vehicle. By shifting backward, the rider will activate the drive wheel. The drive wheel actually contacts the ground to move the Airboard forward. Conventional hovercraft don't use any type of a drive wheel.

Controlling the Airboard is done by shifting your weight from side-to-side, similar to how you would ride a skateboard or surfboard. By varying the amount of weight transfer, the driver can make the vehicle turn sharply or softly. Sliding and 360-degree turns are also possible. To ensure the best steering performance, riders are recommended to be at least 5 feet (1.3 m) tall and about 14 years old. Airboard's developers believe young adults have the sufficient amount of weight to safely control the vehicle.

The Airboard should be ridden on level ground, but can glide over many surfaces, including grass, concrete, asphalt and packed dense materials such as salt pans. The developers say it shouldn't be ridden over loose or littered surfaces, where debris could be lifted into the air stream. And, while it can ride over wet surfaces, it cannot ride over bodies of water because of its limited air-generating capacity.

In traditional hovercraft, drivers simply stop the engine and the vehicle slowly comes to a rest. This new hoverboard vehicle works the same way. In order to stop, you simply release the levers on the handlebar, at which point it will slide to a stop. Leave yourself a few meters to stop. It's also possible to stop faster by using a sliding turn.

Arbortech says that the Airboard will only be available in select locations at first. Initially, you will find these devices at theme parks.

For more information on hoverboards, the Airboard and related topics, check out the links on the next page!