BIT01 wrote:As all of you know I am trying to build a hovercraft. My problem is that I need to know how much air I can pump into it to run correctly. Any formulas and assistance will be great. Thanks.

Moved to its own thread in Engineering.

first off, calculate the pressure you need to lift the hover craft. then you'll need to calculate how fast the air will leak out of the skirt(which is likely to be quite tricky to do properly) and that will give you a value for how much air you need to blow.

it also depends on the smoothness of the surface your hovercraft is going to "slide" on..

 

while the higher amount of air you pump will greatly improve your hovering, a smaller amount of air with careful engineering can produce a better or equivalent air "cushion"..

 

i think the general idea of hovercrafts which you need to keep in mind is: using air as a lubricant between the surface and the craft.

 

you can go about that with sheer force, or careful manipulation of "weaker" air currents..