A possible Skimmer-boat?

[leviterande]

Hey, who are you calling dork here? obviously you are the dork here since you just insult people for no reason , all I wanted to discuss was an airboat with somewhat lower friction and withouta second lifting engine, without having a surface piercing air propeller.... so there is really no need for being rude here and now really

[tom kane]

Maths is not an exact science,but just a theory,or a simple guess.You can be very selective with theory and forget about practice.Maths will have to give way to results in practice.Many surface-piercing props can run up to 20.000 RPM. A four foot fan can move hundreds of cubic air a minute running at 1400 RPM.It is easy to dispute ideas that one is not familular with,if you do not take the time to check the field of experienced past creations.

[tom kane]

if you Google search Images/ airboat plans or airboat fans you should get a lot of ideas.

[tom kane]

This cooling tower fan should make a cheap airboat fan for a home handy man.You can set the pitch of the blades to suit uour self.Easy to ballance and easy to fit to an air boat as parts are already made.

[hoytedow]

Originally Posted by messabout

If you put enough air under the boat to support it, or even partially support it, you will have introduced steering problems. An airboat will slide sideways as it is. Lift it to or above the surface and directional stability will be lost. Some sort of fins or runners will be needed to restore steering ability. Underwater appendages defeat the purpose of airboats. Airboats operate well enough the way they are presently built.

One thing you can do is run an external stringer down each side of the bottom. The outer edge of the stringer will aid steering while the inside of the stringer will catch the air bubbles which run up under the bow. a stepped hull will also help.

[portacruise]

Hi. You might want to check out "hydrocopter" on this list and on google. Reverses the liabilities of water friction and uses water friction to keep the boat afloat and propel it forward.

Originally Posted by leviterande

Hi, did anybody see or make such a hover-craft-airboat.

The idea is simply to take an ordinary airboat and guide some air from the propeller down to under the hull without using skirts. that should reduce the friction a bit over the water , but how much?

the idea is NOT to hover the boat any height at all, but rather to create a very thin layer of air to reduce the friction between the hull and water and therby the boat should go with less effort and better acceleration and top speed.. Any thoughts, experiences?


Kalle