Model Hovercraft Kits GH-C Single Motor Kit $15.99

So, if the pointed shape has advantages, what about other shapes?

Goldstein Hovercraft's exclusive skirt system works with any shape. You can cut out any shape you want from a suitably large foam tray and then attach the skirting material and an airbox and/or a lift duct to quickly turn a flat piece of foam into a hovercraft. The example below shows a craft shaped like the one favored by many commerical sport hovercraft manufacturers.

Any source of lightweight flat material will serve as a hull. 1/4 inch thick foam from home improvement stores is perfect. You can even use the pointed hull that comes with the GH-C if you aren't crazy about the shape. The pointed hull is shown below cut up to form a sporting hovercraft shape.

Any shape is possible. For example, one customer heard about a full size hovercraft called a "starcruiser" and decide to build a model of one.

Every GH-C construction kit comes with a pointed hull designed to fit the parts from the GH-1. The hull is a flat shape, made from the same foam/plastic composite material as the parts from the GH-1 and GH-2. The skirt for this craft uses the same skirting material as the GH-1 & GH-2, as do all skirts on this site. Surprisingly, even though the hull is not shaped like a foam tray, the craft can travel across on smooth floors without any skirt at all. A first time observer would be sure that the craft is, in fact, a sled rather than a hovercraft. This can be proven to be false by closing the airbox trapdoor (see the section on how the airbox works if this is unclear). When the trapdoor is closed, the "sled" receives twice as much thrust as before, and yet it barely moves. Open the trapdoor to give the craft some lift and it will putter away. Of course, the craft performs much better with a skirt.

So, is the shape just for appearances? One advantage of a pointed craft becomes clear when you try to use the craft indoors in amongst furniture. A rectangular craft can become trapped by a variety of chair and table legs. The GH-P1's pointed nose and curved sides allow the craft to escape from a maze of chair and table legs that tend to trap a rectangular craft. If you are planning to use radio control with your craft, you'll discover another advantage: a rectangular craft can be trapped against the sides of a wall. Think about it: if a rectangular craft is along side a wall, turning the rudders one way forces the nose toward the wall, and turning them the other way forces the tail toward the wall. But sometimes neither of these actions will do any good -- both actions require the craft to roll along the wall and since the sides of a rectangular craft are straight, the craft may not roll at all. The curved sides of the GH-P1 allow the craft to easily roll out of this problem.

Want to create a lift duct in a hurry? Use this part as a template to get exactly the right size holes, or use the part directly (as shown numerous times below). When used directly, you can be really lazy. Knock out a rough hole (maybe with your thumb if you are working with foam) and then cover up the rough edges with this part.

Ok, on to the designs!

But that's not all! Turn the "thrust blocker" sideways, and it becomes an elevator. An elevator directs some of the thrust air up or down. If the rear of your craft isn't hovering high enough, you can send of the thrust air downward to raise it back up. If the front of your craft isn't getting up high enough, you can send some of the thrust upwards to bring the rear down which in turn brings the front back up. Sound complicated? It isn't really. Try it and see.

Single duct crafts such as the GH-1 may be called "hovercrafts" but they don't really hover -- that is, they don't hang motionless in the air. Whenever the plastic duct supplies lift, it also supplies thrust. When the craft rises up, it also darts forward. The thrust blocker simply "turns off" the thrust, and allows a single motor craft to hover.

The GH-C comes with complete GH-1 and GH-2 kits, plus a whole lot more. The GH-C kit comes with a total of 4 ducts (4 motors, 4 AAA battery holders, 4 propellers, and 4 plastic ducts, 4 duct stands), one GH-2 cabin, two GH-1 cabins, three airboxes, one WaveJumper attachment, skirt material, foam tape, foam trays of various sizes, and three special parts shown below and featured in the designs on this page: a thrust-blocker/elevator, a create-a-lift-duct part, and a die-cut pointed hull.

The parts are best described in the context of actual designs, so lets look at a few. The following is hardly an exhaustive list of all the crafts that can be built with the parts from the GH-C, but it should get you thinking. (Note that some of these designs do require the use of an exacto knife or a similar sharp tool.)

The GH-C comes with complete GH-1 and GH-2 kits, plus a whole lot more

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