World's Smallest JET-POWERED Hovercraft

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DISCLAIMER: This video is purely for entertainment value. Personal use of video content is at your own risk. Recreations of experiments, activities and projects are the sole legal responsibility of the person(s) involved in replicating them. I can not be liable for any information or misinformation, wrongful use, damage to personal property, death or any circumstances that result from replication of any projects seen. Be safe!

[jocax]

7:51: James guns the engine, and suddenly the entire beach full of birds decides absolutely anywhere else is an excellent place to be

[RodneyMunch]

My dad built a hovercraft in the early 70s. I distinctly remember watching a Super 8 film of one of his test runs where he was heading for the fence, so he cut the engines, and the hovercraft instantly stopped, but my dad carried on flying forward. This video brought back so many memories of my dad. Thank you! (I'll have to see if that Super 8 film still exists)

[dapz]

i was thinking about doing a jet powered hovercraft with my own jet, and then trashed the idea because i didn't think it would have enough thrust to do much at all. Seeing how well that went on the beach is making me reconsider

[nerdtronaut]

Britons when they get one millimeter of snow:

[davegriffiths]

Brilliant build and an impressive top speed. I suppose if you’re flat out you don’t have any headroom to pull corrective manoeuvres but I”m glad the only damage seemed to be the hull superstructure! Enjoyable year of videos!

[DeuxisWasTaken]

I never thought about it before but apparently yes, hovercraft is counter-intuitive in that to slow down you turn around and increase the throttle instead of cutting it. Gives me similar vibes to autogyros, which apparently are "extremely safe unless you do the one thing a pilot intuitively does when facing a stall" and pitch down.

[Marco-ykkp]

I hope DIY Perks keeps hanging out with you, maybe after enough filming sessions you too will put wood and brass trim on everything, very aestheticically pleasing rc planes

[ledocteur]

I would suggest putting some static tail fins on it to avoid drifting as much when you cut off the engine, and help with controllability in general.

[marksapollo]

You really are a natural born presenter. If you don’t end up on television one day, I think you are in for a successful You Tube career.

[johnschoolfield]

Quick idea for increasing the skirt stability. Divide the skirt into quadrants, with each ducted fan devoted to its own quadrant. I think this will help in avoiding the tipping over and having the rigid part of the hovercraft dig into the ground when you lose steering authority.

[HerpilyDerp]

Its so amazing to see you and Matt as both brilliant youtubers separately having a proper wholesome friendship like this.

[steprockmedia]

This is so awesome! That jet sounds WICKED.

PS: If anybody wants to make their own hovercraft, I've built a few and I can recommend you use thick plastic and include a foam ring around your board inside the main envelope. I used pipe insulation. It kept me from getting an out-of-control board at ankle height bashing into my leg.

I used a wired vacuum cleaner for mk1 and then a gas-powered blower for mk2, but I would like to try a battery-powered one + spare batts.

They are fun to play a game of catch with yourself or kids on board, gliding like an air hockey puck across a tennis court to a waiting friend.

[maurisepais]

My advice from the engineer's perspective:
1. Inbuild the throttle control
2. For the cold climate, build a heating system for the fuel.
3. Increase the amount of upward and forward thrust, upward thrust to smoothen out any uneven terrain and forward to improve your control as the more force you push the hovercraft with, the better will its control be so you won't lose control over the engine stalling

[williamgoring]

You're getting there little more power little bigger craft but with practice comes perfection good job

[wassupdoc]

I built a Bob Windt design UH12T2 hovercraft and have improved on it many times over the years since 1980 when I started building it. It's a blast and have it running pretty darn good in light of the long time it took me to get a lot better success. Better bigger engines, etc. I saw those small jet engines used by the guy who flies around with 2 of them on his arms and thought those things have a lot of thrust for their size and would probably work good on a hovercraft like mine. Seeing you do what you did was very cool. Gas powered lift engine and jet powered thrust engine is what i imagined for mine. But mine has a 40hp thrust engine and a 10.5hp lift. Great job and ideas. You're very impressive. You're going places.

[marksumner]

What an amazing project! What’s next, ekranoplan? :)

Having tinnitus from years around jet engines I do worry about the wooly hat ear defenders though!

[madinventor]

After all that. Getting thrown in the drink. Priceless. I loved the whole thing. I'll bet that tea would've came in handy then.

[MarinusMakesStuff]

The next DiY Perks project is obviously going to be a run-along camera gymbal mount.

[apocraphontripp]

Build a Dalek. You got the perfect skirt, just build the rest. You could use a DJ moving head fixture for the top cameras. Rivit a few titanium plates at angles, for ballistic reflection Add a few gyros for top stability and whalla, a legend is born.

[bonkbonk]

Really decent build. I would suggest that you eventually rework the skirt situation. What you can do is use like sealed tarp material or vinyl and stitch it together.