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The Purpose of this website is to detail the construction of my UH-13P.  The UH-13P is a 2 man hovercraft designed by Universal Hovercraft .  If you want to check out my progress go here.  I will update it frequently so check back often.

It's been a long journey down the road of hovercraft construction.  When I first decided to build a hovercraft I was toying around with the idea of building an ultralight airplane.  I thought a hovercraft would be safer having a young family and all.  I haven't added up all the time spent building the hovercraft over the last 8 years but it definitely didn't take that long to build it.  The hovercraft sat in my garage sometimes for years without being touched.  Many other projects were completed during this time.  We moved houses and I built a deck, finished the garage,  built a home theater, built a MAME arcade machine, built an office and a workshop, built a cnc router, and completed numerous other RC related projects.  

The hovercraft is now ready to make it's first water trials.  I just need to cut some drain slits in the skirt and overcome a few trailer loading issues .  I plan to take the hovercraft to our cabin at the lake to get some confidence in it and work out the bugs before taking it to the river.  The river is really where I want to operate the hovercraft.

I plan to try making hovercraft propellers using my CNC router.  I've spent the last few months gaining experience with my machine and the software required to run it.  I plan to try making several different kinds of hovercraft thrust propellers.  I might make a few foam and wood hybrid propellers similar to the ones used on the Weber Hovercraft.  My first hovercraft propeller will most likely be a traditional all wood one.  I think I will experiment with using some hard woods like maple.  It will be much easier to work with hardwoods when using a cnc router to do all the shaping. 

It should be noted that my hovercraft is based on the UH-13P but has been modified extensively by me.  I am not an engineer and I have no previous experience building or operating hovercraft.  Please keep this in mind if you are building a hovercraft and are referencing my construction log.   I do NOT intend it as a how-to guide to building a hovercraft. 

As I said previously I heavily modified the UH-13P hovercraft plans.  I went with a larger thrust prop (54" vs 42").  I did a lot of research on this with Universal Hovercraft and I talked to Bob Windt on the phone.  At the time there wasn't a UH-14P and the 54" thrust prop mod for the 13P was sanctioned by UH.  I didn't add the side thrust duct supports and went with v shaped top duct supports.  It seems solid but we'll see how it holds up.  I may still need to add the side supports if I start getting prop strikes inside the duct.  I pretty much followed the plans when I built the hull of the craft (bottom surf board:).  Most everything on top of the Hull I made up as I went along.  I used a lot of TLAR engineering  (That Looks About Right) when building the cockpit.  I never liked the way the hovercraft cockpit looked on the stock UH13P and decided to build what I thought looked better.  I am very happy with the way it turned out.  I kept the basic design for the drive system as per plan except I added a set of idlers in between the lift idler and engine pulley.  I wasn't happy with all the belt slapping I was getting and I didn't like the guide tube idea.  The seat and control system is my own design.  I am really happy with the way it turned out and it works great so far.  The proof will be when I finally get the craft operating on the water for a few hours. 

If you haven't checked out my hovercraft construction journal please do.  If you have I hope you have enjoyed it.  I certainly had fun on the journey.  I am looking forward to many hours cruising the lake and river on my hovercraft.

Any Questions?  email brendin@hovercrafters.com