Categories: Education

How to Make a Mini Hovercraft

While the year 2000 has past and we still do not have personal hovercrafts, we can still have fun by making our own personal mini hovercrafts.

The items needed in order to make a mini hovercraft are:

A balloon of any size; and you may want various balloon sizes and types

A pop top lid for a sports drink

A CD or a paper plate or a coffee can lid or any other plastic lid from a tub of a product

Super glue

Scissors

The first thing you need to do is make sure any little plastic cover that was over the pop top lid is removed and discarded. The next step is then to make sure that the lid of the pop top is pushed down so the lid is closed.

The next step is to put super glue on the bottom of lid and then glue it over the hole in the CD. If you do not have a CD, you can cut a hole in the paper plate or plastic lid that is just slightly smaller than the bottom of the bottle cap and glue the bottle cap over that hole.

Now wait for the glue to dry.

Once the glue is dry, blow up the balloon. Wrap the stem of the balloon around your finger as if you were going to tie the balloon, but do not tie it. This is just to keep the air from escaping.

Once again, make sure that the cap is pushed down and closed. Now while making sure that the air is still not escaping from the balloon, put the end of the balloon over the cap making an air tight seal between the balloon and the cap.

Once this is done, it should like there is a big balloon sitting on top of a flat disc of some sort.

Now place the CD or whatever object you chose to use on a flat surface. Pull open the pop top on the bottle cap. The air will come out of the balloon and create an air cushion that will allow the CD or other disc to hover around on the flat surface. It will look like the mini hovercraft is gliding effortlessly.

The balloon will continue to deflate as the hovercraft moves. Once the balloon deflates, you can start the process over again by closing the pop top by pushing it down, blowing up the balloon, holding the air in, placing the opening of the balloon over the pop tops, and then opening the pop top while the disc is over a flat surface.

You can experiment by trying different types of balloons as the source of air. You can also experiment by putting the mini hovercraft on different flat surfaces and seeing how it reacts.

This is also a great small science lab for physical science to demonstrate Newton’s laws of motion, air pressure, vacuums, and friction.

Andrew Putschoegl, How To Build a Mini Hovercraft, Howcast