Awesome Hovercrafts

After making a homebrew hovercraft with a leaf blower, Hideyasu Ito created his own unique take on the air-cushioned ride, a single-person hovercraft that floats on four plastic bubbles. Tom Scott had the rare privilege to meet the inventor and take his amazing creation for a ride.

DBZ fans might be familiar with the Hovercar, first driven by Ox-King, then by many others. DanCreator thought he should have his own hovercar, so he built one from wood, cardboard, pool floats, and leaf blowers. It glides over smooth surfaces with ease, though we wouldn’t suggest taking it in a swimming pool.

A hovercraft might sound like a complicated piece of equipment to build from scratch, but Project Air shows us how it’s possible to build one at home using wood, foam board, a plastic tarp, and duct tape. The key to the build is the powerful lift motors. He also had some help from his dad and fellow maker Matt from DIY Perks.

After playing Mario Kart on his cardboard arcade machine, artist DanCreator wanted to ride in a real Mario Kart. So he got out his tools and got to building. To replicate the game’s anti-gravity zones, he attached two leaf blowers and some pool floats, so it glides like a hovercraft. We love how Dan recycles bits from other projects.

The guys from Fowler’s Makery and Mischief dropped by the Home Depot and spent over $1200 on cordless leaf blowers, lumber, and hardware to build a fun and totally ridiculous craft. The finished hovercraft uses six leaf blowers to hover, and another four for thrust and steering. See it in action at the 38-minute mark.

Like most countries, you need a license in the UK to sell liquor in a bar, restaurant, or other location. But there’s a loophole in their law that seems to permit unlicensed sales aboard vehicles in transit. So Tom Scott and Matt Grey set up a working bar aboard a small hovercraft to deliver drinks to patrons in the countryside.

To celebrate the Halloween season, maker and tinkerer William Osman and his pals decided to see if they could transform a pumpkin into a working hovercraft. They used a vacuum cleaner as its primary source of flotation, and a couple of small drone motors to steer it.

While it doesn’t really work like the hoverboards in Back to the Future II, we’re still impressed by Alexandru Duru’s record-breaking flight, during which he stayed airborne on his hovering platform above the water for more than 900 feet.