Personal hovercraft remains a big boy toy reserved for the wealthy but one Japanese inventor offers some hope that anyone can build one for themselves if they want to. Clearly, homemade hovercrafts aren’t new. Many people have had their hands on making one but what set Hide Ito aka Micro Hovercraft Laboratory’s Micro Hovercraft apart is, it does not quite look like the hovercraft you have seen. It appears more like a hoverbike, or hover quadbike, but with skirts.
Like many, Ito started out experimenting with leaf blowers and subsequently, upgrading the design to an electric drive. Ito has since made 9 micro hovercrafts, the latest being a twin-blower example that resembles a motorcycle. Thanks to the use of transparent plastic elements for the skirtings, these Micro Hovercrafts sometimes do look like hoverbikes. The Micro Hovercraft 8 is powered by 8 ducted fans: 4 for hovering and two for forward thrust.
We noticed Micro Hovercraft Laboratory has not been updating its website, YouTube channel, and Twitter – that’s until YouTuber Tom Scott paid him a visit in Japan. It was in Tom’s video (which you can find embedded below) we get to see the new twin-blower hovercraft. I guess Micro Hovercraft-san is really busy perfecting his air cushioning ride. It is unclear if Ito’s hovercraft could traverse over water.
Images: Twitter (@microhovercraft)/YouTube (Tom Scott).
via YouTube (Tom Scott).
