How to do homemade airboat. It should be noted that the power units of trikes in terms of power, reliability and coefficient useful action They are perfect for creating airboats, since the parameters of a motor with a propeller are no worse than those of traditional power units with a propeller. Moreover, a boat with aeropropulsion is not afraid of shallow water, thickets of reeds, sedges and algae.
In addition, the glider engine releases exhaust gases not into the water, like the outboard or stationary power unit of any boat (from the point of view of environmentalists, this method of muffling the exhaust does not stand up to criticism!), but into the air. So, airboat. The heart of his propulsion system is outboard motor“Whirlwind” is a compact two-cylinder liquid-cooled engine with a power of about 25 hp. Unfortunately, its crankshaft rotation speed is too high to work in tandem with a propeller, so the motor is equipped with a three-ribb V-belt gearbox with gear ratio 1.6. V-belts are “Zhiguli”, from the “engine-pump-generator” system.
The driving and driven pulleys are machined from duralumin (D16T or AK4-1T) and, after adjustment, are subjected to hard anodizing. The drive pulley is attached to the flywheel with rivets. To install a driven pulley on the engine, it is necessary to install a plate-spacer made of a steel sheet 5 mm thick on its front part, and mount the cantilever axle of the driven pulley on it. The pulley itself rotates on an axis on two ball bearings 204 and one 205. Between the bearings there are duralumin spacer bushings.
The pulley is fixed to the axle with a locking ring and a screw with a washer. The spacer plate is bolted to the engine crankcase and to the brackets, and the latter are installed on adapter bushings, which are screwed instead of nuts onto the engine head mounting studs. To tension the belts, a mechanism is used, consisting of a bushing welded to a spacer plate and a bolt with a nut. As already mentioned, the engine is cooled by liquid, using sea water supplied to the cooling jacket homemade pump, made on the basis of the impeller from the Kama electric pump.
For supporting optimal temperature engine (80-85°C) a standard car thermostat is used. The engine is started using a cord, for which a pulley is installed between the propeller and the spinner, around which the cord is wound before starting. The airboat propeller is wooden, monoblock, that is, made from one piece pine block. True, it is not easy to select such a block without knots and cross-layers, and in this case it makes sense to glue the workpiece epoxy resin from carefully trimmed plates about 10 mm thick.
When selecting plates, you need to make sure that the layers of wood are located symmetrically relative to the gluing planes - this will save the propeller from possible warping in the future. The manufacture of a propeller begins with the preparation of templates - plywood or, better yet, duralumin, which are made according to a carefully executed plaza drawing on a scale of 1:1. You will need the following templates: plan, side view (up to the axis of symmetry), as well as the upper and lower profiles of the screw. To begin with, the workpiece is jointed on all sides in accordance with overall dimensions screw, after which axial lines are drawn on it and, using a template, the contours of the side view are drawn.
Next, excess wood is removed - first with a sharpened hatchet, and then with a plane and rasp. Next, the workpiece is marked using a planning template, which is secured with a small nail in the center of the future propeller, outlined with a pencil, after which the template is rotated 180 degrees and the planned projection of the second blade is marked. Excess wood is removed with a bow or fine-toothed band saw. The most important part of the work is giving the blades an aerodynamic profile. As can be seen from the drawing of the screw, one side is flat and the other is convex.
In accordance with the position of the control sections, the installation locations of the templates are marked on the workpiece, and “beacons” are made with a semicircular chisel and a semicircular rasp - in accordance with the configuration of the upper and lower templates. The main tool for processing propeller blades is a small ax made of good steel, literally sharpened to a razor sharpness. When removing wood, it is recommended to first make small cuts - this will avoid splitting the workpiece. This is followed by preliminary processing of the workpiece with a plane and rasp. This is followed by final finishing in the slipway. The latter is a carefully planed board with a thickness of at least 60 mm, on which transverse cuts are made to a depth of 20 mm to install the lower profile templates of the propeller blade.
The central rod of the slipway is machined from steel or duralumin; its diameter must correspond to the hole in the propeller hub. The rod is glued in the center of the slipway board strictly perpendicular to its surface. Next, the working surfaces of the lower templates are rubbed with colored pencil or blue, the propeller blank is put on the central rod and pressed against the templates - first with one blade, and then with the other. In this case, traces of the templates will be imprinted on the workpiece in those places where they come into contact with the lower surface of the propeller.
"Dirty" areas using a planer, plow, rasp or wooden block with the sandpaper glued to it, they are cleaned off, the workpiece is again placed in the slipway - and the processing of the propeller blades is repeated. When traces of a colored pencil are imprinted across the entire width of the blade, the processing of its lower surface can be considered complete. The upper part of the screw is machined in a slipway using upper templates (they are also called counter templates). First, using a semicircular rasp, the blade is adjusted to the counter-templates (as professionals say, counter-templates are seated), as a result of which the template and the counter-template should come into contact along the parting plane, tightly enveloping the blade itself.
Then the treated areas are rubbed with a colored pencil and the areas between the control sections are processed. In this case, painting is necessary in order to prevent re-processing of the blade at the locations of the control sections. In this case, the correctness of processing is checked with a straight steel ruler applied to the one-percent points of adjacent sections. On a properly made blade there should be no gap between the ruler and the surface. If during the work an awkward movement of the tool leads to chipping of the wood, this does not mean at all that the work is irreparably damaged. You can fix it with putty mixed with epoxy glue and small sawdust
The finished propeller is carefully balanced. The best way to do this is to tightly insert a metal roller into the central hole and install the propeller on the balancing rulers. If one of the blades turns out to be lighter, it is recommended to load it with lead, for which small strips of this metal are first glued onto it, and when the propeller is balanced, the strips are melted and poured into a mold, for example, into a piece steel pipe. The resulting rod (or rods) is riveted into a hole drilled in the place of the blade where the lead strips were glued.
The hole on both sides of the blade should be slightly countersunk. Finishing the propeller consists of covering it with two layers of thin fiberglass, followed by sanding, final balancing, priming and painting with auto enamel. Frame homemade airboat consists of two large parts - upper and lower. It is better to start assembling it from the bottom. To do this, in accordance with the theoretical drawing of the hull and drawings, form-building frames are cut from plywood 12 mm thick, and stringers and keels are cut from slats with a cross-section of 20x20, 30x20 and 30x30 mm. The frame is assembled on a flat floor. The diametrical plane and the location of the frames are first marked on it. The frames are attached to the floor using wooden blocks and braces.
The adjustment of the longitudinal slats is done “in place”, the fastening of the slats to the frames is done with epoxy glue with temporary fixation of the elements with safety wire. Curvilinear slats for the front part of the frame are obtained by first steaming them in boiling water and fixing them with wire on the frame. After the slats have dried, they are fixed to the frames with epoxy glue. After thinning (leveling) the frame, the spacing is filled with blocks of construction foam, which are fixed using the same epoxy binder.
After treating the foam surface (if necessary, it is puttied with the already familiar composition of epoxy glue and sawdust), the body is covered with two layers of fiberglass, puttied, sanded and painted with auto enamels. From the inside, the foam is cut flush with the frames and also covered with fiberglass. Making the upper part of an airboat is not much different from the lower part. True, the frame is assembled not from plywood frames, but from prepared curved slats, and not on the floor, but on the already finished lower part of the body.
The frame on which the engine motor mount is attached has an increased cross-section and reinforcements at the junction of the slats - plywood gussets. The frame itself is attached to a crossbar made of a square steel pipe with a cross-section of 40x40 mm and fixed with braces made of pipes with a diameter of 22 mm. Shaping is also done using polystyrene foam followed by gluing with fiberglass. The door glazing is made of plexiglass 4 mm thick, the windshield is from back door car "Moskvich-2141". Part of the door itself became an element of the cabin.
Airboat doors consist of wooden frame and plywood sheathing. They are covered with fiberglass inside and out. Door hinges are homemade, overhead. In the ceiling of the cabin (or, if you prefer, the deckhouse) there is a removable hatch cover made from a cut-out part of the roof. At the rear of the airboat, two keels are mounted, which organize the air flow and also serve as a guard for the propeller.
Controlled homemade airboat using a steering wheel, on the shaft of which a steering drum is attached, connected by cable wiring to a traverse on the steering wheel stock box. Gas control - a lever located under the driver’s left hand. The cabin contains seats for the passenger and driver. The seat and back frames are glued together from wooden slats and sheathed with 4 mm plywood. Pillows are made of foam rubber and artificial leather.
Those who like to make various “toys” on the control panel will probably be very interested in how to make an airboat with their own hands. This boat, which you can actually assemble yourself, will a wonderful gift for a child or help with fishing.
What materials will you need?
In principle, anyone can assemble an airboat with their own hands. The only thing is that you will have to buy some parts (if you don’t have them at home). All you need is:
If you give this wonderful homemade product to your child, it is best to use an impeller. Its advantage over a propeller is that the baby will not be able to injure his fingers. But the thrust of the impeller is quite low - about 500 g. But if you make the airboat light, then it will be quite enough.
The beginning of the construction process from penoplex
If you use an impeller as an engine, it would be best to take foam sheets 20 mm thick. But if you don’t have it at hand, you can build an airboat with your own hands from the ceiling.
If the airboat is not too large, you can take sheets 40 mm thick. Excellent buoyancy indicators combined easily make penoplex an excellent material for this homemade product.
In order for the airboat to be stable on the water, balancing must be done by arranging all the parts in a special order. Since the heaviest part of the boat is the battery. It should be installed as low as possible. To do this, you can cut a recess in the body for it. But you should also keep in mind that the ceiling is a rather fragile and thin material. Therefore, it needs to be strengthened with something. A ruler (an ordinary school wooden ruler) is suitable for this purpose. Using glue or epoxy, it is fixed in places that may not withstand loads.
After the electrical equipment of the future boat has been installed, it is necessary to glue the bottom to the hull. This can be done using Titan glue and wait a while for it to dry completely. After that, you can move on to add-ons.
Do-it-yourself add-ons for an airboat
In order to make superstructures on the deck of a future boat, you can use ready-made drawings, or you can try to make something of your own. Of course, all models have some features that unite them. Therefore, there is no need to split hairs.
The mount for the impeller can be made from two connected penoplex parts. To do this, you need to cut out a rectangle, and in it cut out a circle for the engine, and then cut the resulting rectangle in half. This design allows the engine to be removable (for replacement or repair). In order to securely fix the impeller and not be afraid that it will jump out at any moment, you can fix it using the same ruler and a pair of screws. To do this, it is glued between the two halves of a penoplex rectangle, and then the resulting structure is glued and fixed with screws.
A superstructure in the form of a pilothouse will help protect electrical equipment from splashes. Fastening is done using glue. You can use hot melt glue, but if the airboat will be used in winter time, then it's not the best choice. In addition, holes for ventilation will have to be made in the wheelhouse.
Boat controls
In order for the airboat to be controlled somehow, it needs to attach a rudder. A thin ceiling is best. A rectangle is cut out of it. To secure the steering wheel, you can use any rod with a 3 mm section. Additionally, you will have to take into account that when moving through water, the airboat will “lift up” its nose and the steering wheel will end up in the water.
Vessel sealing
The boat is able to move on any surface, be it snow, water or grass. It is possible that dirt and water will get inside the homemade product. To prevent this, you will have to arm yourself with alcohol, epoxy and a brush. Since the airboat is radio-controlled with your own hands, the antenna must be hidden in a carbon fiber tube. Then you need to dilute the epoxy with alcohol and apply it to the ship using a brush. This will not only protect against water, but will also make sliding easier. And an additional advantage from coating with epoxy is that an airboat made with your own hands becomes stronger.
Bells and whistles and accessories
To make your airboat stand out, you can take care of some “decorations” and useful additions. Spray paint cans are great for painting your boat, and tape can be used to add something to the hull or decorate the steering wheel. But it should be taken into account that the weight of the model increases, which means that the speed will be lower. The main thing is not to overdo it, because the boat can simply capsize in the water. In addition, the airboat can be equipped with lights and LED bulbs.
Airboat made of foam
Foam plastic has the same buoyancy characteristics as penoplex. Therefore, the creation process is not much different. And you don’t have to look separately on the Internet for how to build an airboat with your own hands. Just as in the first case, you can make an airboat with your own hands (the boat drawings will help make this process easier). Or show your imagination and put together something of your own. And to strengthen the structure, you can use construction tape. The whole bottom is wrapped with it. Wooden rulers may not be used to strengthen the structure.
DIY airboat for fishing
To make feeding fish not only a simple process, but also a fun one, you can use a radio-controlled airboat with your own hands. For permanent use, it is best to make a solid boat from plastic or plywood (although plastic or PVC panels are more suitable for these purposes, because they do not rot)
The cost of the resulting “toy” will be about six thousand rubles. Agree, compared to what fishing shops offer (boats from 30 thousand rubles), this is still divine.
For any avid fisherman, such a homemade product will help to bait fish. Usually the bait is thrown by hand over a certain distance; a boat can simplify this process. When making an airboat with your own hands for fishing, you need to take into account that the food will have to be lowered into the water somehow. In order to solve this problem, you can follow the path of least resistance - make opening containers with complementary foods, and tie a strong thread or fishing line to the door. When the airboat reaches the desired point, you just need to pull the string.
Mission "Rescuer"
Avid fans of radio-controlled airplanes may find themselves in a difficult situation - their model may fall into a pond, but they will not be able to get it out. Now we are talking about seaplane models, because other aircraft models will most likely sink immediately.
So, a radio-controlled aircraft enthusiast is in trouble. The plane ended up in the river. In order to pull it out, it is enough to attach the end of a strong rope to the body of the airboat. And then, using a boat, pick up the plane and pull it out of the water.
Here is a drawing of a simple model with an electric motor and a propeller. Real boats of this type are used on small rivers where a regular ship's propeller can be damaged. The popular material used to make the model is polystyrene foam. It is very light and works well. It can be cut with a thermal cutter (see M-K No. 3, 1978, p. 47), as well as with a jigsaw, hacksaw or a sharp thin knife. The processing is completed with a plane or safety razor blade and glass sandpaper. When gluing or painting, do not use substances containing acetone or nitro solvent, as they damage the foam.
First draw a life-size model. Then transfer parts 1, 4, 8, 9, 10 through carbon paper onto 3-5 mm thick plywood, cut them out with a jigsaw and sand them with glass sandpaper. From foam plastic 50 mm thick, cut two bars measuring 390X90 mm. Mark the cutouts on both halves for the cockpit and battery as shown in part 9 and cut them out. To part 9, attach steering wheel 11, cut from aluminum (1 mm thick) or copper (0.5 mm thick) sheet, with an M3 screw and nut. Glue both bars on both sides of part 9 with BF-2 or PVA glue and press them together. To avoid damaging the edges of the bars, attach a plank of wood to the side walls. soft wood dimensions 10X50 mm. For tightening, you can use a rubber thread, a carpenter's clamp, etc.
When the glue has dried, make cutouts in the bow and stern and glue parts 1 and 10. Transfer the halves of the top and side projections of the hull outline onto the cardboard. Then cut them out and outline them on the model with a soft pencil. Now, placing the boat hull on a solid support, give it the desired shape, making sure that both halves are symmetrical. After this, cover the body with thin paper (or newspaper). Paint the shell in the main color, first filling the uneven areas, sand it after drying, and add another layer of paint. The final coating is done with synthetic enamel. We recommend using contrasting colors, for example, white and red, white and blue, etc.
Cut out the side walls of the cabin (part 3), right and left, and the front window (part 2) from thick paper, bend as shown, and before gluing, insert a piece of thin celluloid imitating porthole glass. Make the seat from foam plastic and before gluing it into the cockpit, paint it and the outer parts of the cabin scarlet. Cover the floor with black paper or a piece of wallpaper that imitates wood. Secure the steering wheel.
In the upper slot of the pylon, glue the motor stand (part 8) with 5X5 mm slats attached to it, one edge of which is cut off, as shown in the drawing (section G-G). To move the model, a 4.5 V micro-electric motor (part 7) is used, onto the shaft of which tightly fit a propeller (part 6) Ø140 mm. If the hole in its sleeve is too small, drill it out to Ø1.9 mm. Place the motor with the propeller on the stand and secure it with a rubber band threaded into a hook made of Ø0.8 mm wire (paper clip). To connect the motor to the 3336L 4.5 V battery, use a Ø1 mm wire. Make a switch from contacts from an old battery and two M3 screws with nuts.
It is more convenient to place the lever switch on the pylon under the motor stand. After turning on the motor, make sure that it rotates in the right direction: the air stream should go behind the stern of the boat. If this is not the case, then the direction of rotation of the motor can be changed by changing the ends of the wires on the contacts. The battery must be closed with a lid (part 4), one end of which is inserted under the pylon, and the other is secured with a cotter pin made of Ø0.8 mm wire inserted into the hole in part 9. In the front part of the cover, drill two holes Ø1 mm and insert a bracket into them, also made of wire Ø0.8 mm, for easy opening of the cover when changing the battery.
Airboat is great vehicle for those who often like to go fishing and hunting, because its characteristics are many times greater than the cross-country ability of any SUV. Moreover, it can be used both in summer and winter. True, the cost of airboats sometimes starts at 300 thousand rubles and above. But you can go the other way by making a similar product yourself.
Homemade airboats are practically not inferior in quality to their factory counterparts. Therefore, every year there are more and more of them in Russia. And today we will look at how to make an airboat with your own hands.
Engine
The motor for our homemade product can be used from the usual Soviet times. But for lovers of high speed, this will not seem enough. In this case, you should pay attention to the Japanese Honda and Yamaha engines with power from 150 to 210 horsepower. Paired with a propeller, such a motor is capable of accelerating a boat up to 50 kilometers per hour on water and up to 90 on ice. and the thermostat is taken from passenger car"Zhiguli" type. The driven and driving pulleys are made of duralumin steel.
Screws, blades and propeller
In addition to the engine, you should also take care of the airboat's propeller. We will make it from solid wooden beam. You can go the other way by gluing several 10 mm plates. It is important that finished item did not contain unnecessary knots and burrs. As for the plates, when fitting them, it is better to make a 1:1 drawing, which will be a kind of template, and using this data to make a boat propeller.
To make a high-quality airboat with your own hands, you should not be lazy and make everything “by eye” - each part is made according to its own template and drawing.
The propeller blades should also be free of burrs and other deformed areas. Such defects can be removed using a small hatchet. Next, the wood is processed with a plane and rasp. Transverse cuts are made on a special slipway. They are needed to install the propeller blades.
How to further make an airboat with your own hands? For the core of the slipway we need ordinary steel. The main thing is that its diameter is equal to the hole in the hub of the mentioned part. Next, the rod is placed on the center of the slipway board. Afterwards, the propeller blank is put on it and pressed against the template with several blades. This workpiece should show template marks (where the blades touch the propeller).
These places should be processed with a plane and placed back on the slipway. The blade processing process must be repeated. Next, using the upper templates, the upper part of the screw is processed. As a result, both elements must touch up to the plane of the connector. All treated areas are marked with a colored pencil or marker, after which zones are created between the control section. The correctness of the work performed is checked with a steel ruler - it is applied to the points of adjacent sections. Ideally, the gap between the ruler and the blades should be minimal.
Now the screw needs to be balanced. This is done as follows. First, a steel platen is inserted into the central hole and the propeller is mounted on the balancing rulers. If suddenly one blade turns out to be lighter than the other, it is loaded with lead (thin strips of this metal, previously poured into a mold, are glued on). The finished rod is inserted into the hole of the blade - where the lead strips were applied. It is countersunk on both sides. The propeller is covered with fiberglass on both sides, sanded, balanced and goes through a painting procedure (priming and enamel).
How to make an airboat with your own hands? Drawings and assembly of the lower body
The airboat hull consists of two parts - lower and upper. It's best to start with the first one. To do this, in accordance with the drawing, we prepare frames from 12 mm plywood sheets. The keel and stringers will be made from slats with a section of 2x2, 2x3 and 3x3 centimeters. The frames are mounted to the floor on bars and slats-braces. The slats should be adjusted to the location. They are attached to slats for the front part of the boat, undergo a preliminary procedure of steaming in boiling water, and then are tied to the frame with wire. After drying, the wood is finally fixed with glue. Next, the finished frame is leveled and filled with foam blocks. We also put the latter on epoxy resin.
If necessary, the foam is puttied with a mixture of glue and sawdust. The body itself is covered on both sides with a thin layer of fiberglass, after which it is sanded and painted. From the inside, unnecessary foam is cut off so that it stands flush with the frames. Then it is also covered with fiberglass.
Upper body
The upper part of the body is assembled slightly differently. Here we will not use plywood frames, but curved slats that will be attached to the finished lower part of the boat. Where the engine is located, the frame is fixed with gussets. The frame itself is mounted to a crossbar made of square steel pipe (4x4 centimeters) and fixed with 2.2-centimeter pipes. Then everything is simple - foam is applied to the surface and covered with fiberglass. This way we will complete the procedure of forming the upper part of the hull of a homemade airboat. The doors can be made from plywood, and the windshield is best taken from a domestic car (for example, from the back door of a Moskvich).
How to make fishing crafts? Controls
A drum is installed on the steering wheel shaft, connected to a yoke on the steering wheel stock. Instead of an accelerator pedal, there will be a small lever that can be mounted in any front part of the boat's interior.
Salon
The seats for passengers and the driver are made of wood slats and plywood. The frame is filled with foam rubber and covered with leather. You can go another way - take ready-made seats from a foreign car or even a domestic car. At this stage, the question “how to make an airboat with your own hands” can be considered closed. All other little things in the cabin are arranged to your liking; the main thing here is to have imagination and enthusiasm.
So, we found out how to make an airboat with our own hands. Good luck!
After rummaging around on the Internet, looking at a lot of photographs and drawings, I imagined it in my head and put it on paper. Here... 
The search for materials for construction did not cause any difficulties - it was our familiar polystyrene foam.
First, we need a piece of ball foam (or whatever is more convenient for you). Length 450mm,
Width 162mm, Thickness 350mm. Using a utility knife, we give it the shape we need. And then we cover it with foam. 
Don't forget about installing the servo. 
Next, cut out a sheet of the size we need and glue it on top. 
And then we glue everything to the end. 
While the glue dries, let's start assembling the floats. Having cut out the two different plates we need, cutting the ends at a certain angle, we glue them together. 
Well, later we will add the rest of the details. It should have turned out something similar to this. 
As for the motor mount, I made it from oak. And the place for mounting the engine is from thin plywood glued with plastic. 
The diameter is about 45mm (that's approximately). 
Next, we make a cylinder for the motor mount so that it fits tightly on it. 
And we make three slits in it (one near the seam, and the other two at a distance of approximately 15mm on both sides. This is for the superstructure). There's only one more in the photo. 
Now we've reached the hardest part. Maybe someone thought while looking at general drawing that it's easy, but I thought so too. And this was, in my opinion, rather difficult. First, we cut out the semblance of triangles and bend them. 
We also cut out the other part and bend it too. 
Then we glue them together. After the glue has dried, cut out the windows and doors. 
Then you need to immediately paste plastic film, which will serve as glass (I took it from toy packaging). Cut and glue the back of the superstructure. 
Let's not forget about the hill on which our future superstructure will be. 
Now you can start assembling. Glue the remaining parts together. 
Now we need to make the steering wheel. We will need aluminum plate 11X5 1mm thick. A bent spoke is inserted as an axis. 
And the most important detail: in my opinion, this is the design and color of the model. Here I tried to make it simple and beautiful. But it was a bit complicated due to the large number of bends and the shape of the glider. 
Now it's time to install the electronics:
Engine
