« Reply #1 on: Feb 24, 2010, 8:45 pm »
 
Electric hovercraft would be easy if you could plug them in!

It's about energy... a 100 amp-hour battery contains about 36kJ of energy. 1 gallon of petrol contains 134000kJ. The most efficient cruising craft will consume about 1.5 gallons per hour. To hover for one hour using batteries, you need 5583 100 Ahr batteries!

So unless you've got a ling, long mains lead you arn't going far.

HOWEVER.... if you're interest is in producing a demonstration vehicle, more of an academic exercise, then it could be done. Look for the human-powered hovercraft on the web, and take your inspiration from them.

http://steamboatwilly.org/

Ian
Ian Brooks
Gloucester, UK