RC Hovercraft

This is a large speedy and nimble hovercraft that is relatively easy to print, with next to no support material (≈50g of support). All parts are made so they can be printed on an Ender 3 or simular sized printer. The hovercraft is 580mm long, and 280mm wide, both drive motors are mounted on servos which gives the hovercraft great steering authority. You will find the build video down below. You can also see more videos of the hovercraft on my youtube channel, and more will come. 

Materials 

• 1,5kg PLA
• 1x 70mm EDF (FMS 70mm 12-Blades Ducted Fan) 
• 1x 65A brushless ESC 
• 2x Brushless motor (EMax ECO II 2207 2400KV) 
• 2x 35A brushless ESC 
• 2x 5 inch propellers 
• 2x 9gram servo 
• 2x 12x28x8 ball bearing 
• 2x 8x16x5 ball bearing 
• 10x M3 threaded inserts 
• 10x M3 screws 8mm long 
• 2x Carbon fiber rods, 205mm long, 3mm Ø
• 16x Round neodymium magnets, 4mm Ø and 2mm thick 
• 1x 4S Lipo 3700mAh 45C Tattu or same sized lipo 
• 80x Balloons (30cm Ø inflated, 50-55mm Ø uninflated) 
• 1x 6 ch transmitter and receiver 
• Some soldering supplies, wires and battery connector 
• Epoxy 

Print settings 

• 3 perimeters 
• 25% infill 
• 0.2mm layer height 
• Raft 
• Manual support 

I printed all parts of the hull standing on there ends on top of a raft. Manual support needs to be added on some surfaces, see picture. 

All parts are oriented the way I intended to print them, so you just need to move them around so they fit on the build plate, and also add support where the pictures show. 

I have worked over a period of about 7 months to designing and test this hovercraft, and I am about 95% happy with the design. There might be one or more iterations from me some time in the future but you dont need to wait for me. Download the Fusion files and modify it yourself the way you want to =) 

I had a plan from the beginning to make a segmented skirt with many smaller bags that makes up the skirt. After a lot of testing with different materials I finally figured out that balloons are perfect for the skirt. When they aren't inflated they are quite thick and can withstand a lot of hard driving. A lot of testing later making different ways to mount the skirt, and I finally found a great way to hold the skirt tight against the hull. You need to cut the neck of the balloons maybe 40-45 mm, just make sure that all balloons are cut equal. 

I had one of the earlier iterations of the hovercraft at speeds up to 50Km/h, but since then I haven't had the chance to try and beat that speed. With the latest iteration and on the right surface and with some more training driving the hovercraft, I think it can get close to 70Km/h, it still had quite a lot of power to give when I drove at 50Km/h. 

STEP-files are also avalible for anyone that want to keep working on the design. 

Here is a video from a earlier iteration of the hovercraft driving on ice.