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Hovercraft DesignProject 98.01

Delaware Aerospace AcademyDr. Stephanie Wright(Sponsor)

Design TeamDave Rabeno (Phone: 456 1687 / Email:rabenod@UDel.Edu)Brandon Michael Fichera(Phone:266-6953/E-mail:fichera@udel.edu)Benjamin Sean Gallagher(Phone: / Email: seang@UDel.Edu )Gregory Daniel Pease (Phone: 325-2489 / E-mail: 10427@udel.edu)

mailto:rabenod@UDel.Edumailto:fichera@udel.edumailto:rabenod@UDel.Edumailto:fichera@udel.edu

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This report is a proposal of our Senior Design teams mission to design a two-person

hovercraft for the Delaware Aerospace Academy (DAA). The mission of our team is to design

this hovercraft so that it will demonstrate the relevant scientific principles and simulate planetary

exploration as an educational tool to cadets of the DAA.

The DAA has been involved with NCDA and the Senior Design course in the past;

sponsoring space related projects for design teams for the past few years. The Delaware

Aerospace Academy specializes in teaching children about the technology associated with the

space program.

Dr. Stephanie Wright, president of the DAA, desires a usable hovercraft for use in DAA

sponsored activities. The hovercraft will provide the DAA with an educational tool that can teach

students the scientific principles that are related to hovercrafts. Besides being used in junior high

and high school demonstrations and DAA sponsored events, the hovercraft will be used in

conjunction with the 1997-1998 lunar rover design project. The two will be used to simulate

planetary exploration in the DAA's level III tech camps, which are designed for grades 7 9 and

will also stimulate childrens interest in the space program.

After discussing the problem as a team, with our sponsor, and with our advisor, a

consensus was reached about the projects mission. It reads as follows:

To design a two person hovercraft for the Delaware Aerospace Academy that will

demonstrate the scientific principles of a hovercraft, increase interest in the space

program, and simulate planetary exploration as an educational tool for students in grades

7-9.

In an effort to provide a better product, a list of potential customers and their wants

needed to be generated. Brainstorming provided the design group with a list of eight potential

customers. These customers each had a list of ideas which they wanted to be included in the

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design. These wants were then prioritized, by customer, and recorded in chart fashion. This

information is located in Table 1.

Table 1: Customers

The customers are also arranged in order of importance. Dr. Wright, our sponsor, is listed

as our principle customer. Since the first objective of our project is to use the hovercraft to teach,

the team decided educators and at least one person who works with educators should be included

in the list. Martin Rabeno is a technology teacher and Selina DeCicco is a mathematics teacher,

both in the Ellenville Central School District. Mr. Rabeno and Ms. DeCicco are both listed

because we believe that the impact of our design will differ between Jr. High School and a High

School students and teachers, even though we find their wants are the same. Ron Perkins is

salesman at Educational Innovations, which provides laboratory equipment to schools. As Mr.

Perkins is a salesman, the cost of production of the craft is of high concern. Since the craft is

meant for kids, students of both junior high school and of high school will provide excellent

sources of information. The junior high student wants the hovercraft to be fun. We imagine a

high school student will more likely want to learn how the craft works. Robert Bloom is an

aerospace engineer at DAA. As someone who is familiar with the kind of use our design will

Customers Organization

Stephanie Wright DAA Safe Educational Fun Reliable Transportable

Martin Rabeno HS teacher Educational Safe Fun

Selina DeCicco JR High Teacher Educational Safe Fun

Eric Rabeno 8th grade student Fun

Ron Perkins Educational Inovations Educational Cost Fun

School system Educatonal Cost

High School Student Fun Educational

Robert Bloom Aerospace Eng. (DAA) Safe Educational

Wants

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probably endure, Mr. Blooms suggestions will be of great help in making the craft more

durable.

As a way to determine the overall priority of want, each of the wants in the chart have

been assigned numeric values. Any want which was repeated had its numeric values added. The

team then listed them, the highest value listed first. Taking theses generalized wants, the team

then came up with more design specific criteria and listed them for each want ( located intable

2). These wants and constrains will be used to keep the design process attentive to the customer.

Table 2: Wants and Constraints

Want ConstraintSafe All moving parts enclosed

Emergency Shut off

Educational Teach priciples of Hovercraft

Keeps kids interested

Related to space

Fun Appearance

Reliable Multiple uses

Transportable Weight

Size

Cost Allowable funds

Upon receiving this project, the design group spent several days researching hovercraft

design. This task was done to find out more about hovercrafts, their components, and theories

and ideas concerning levitation so that no effort would be wasted re-inventing the wheel. The

team also searched for information regarding educational tools and companies who provide

scientific equipment to high schools. The companies and their products are listed in table 3.

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Table 3: Benchmarking

The strengths of each competitive project are listed. Also, they are ranked in order of

importance to us (5 being the most important). Two kits, both by Robert Q. Riley Enterprise, will

most likely be very helpful (each kit is given its own line). The Tri-Flyer is a three-seater

hovercraft that lifts 800 pounds, has speeds of 75 mph with an 80-hp engine. This is obviously

over-designed for what we need but gives us a good staring point for our design concepts. The

Pegasus only lifts 100 pounds and uses a 3- hp lawnmower engine. This is a slight under-

design but will also provide valuable design help. Another company, The Hover Club is useful in

that it provides many articles explaining the principles behind hovercrafts and will be useful in

many phases of the design process. These articles, written with an intent to educate, will also

help us to figure out what scientific information is important and will help us to put it into a form

that can be easily understood by children. Universal Hovercraft sells hovercrafts well above our

price range but also sells engines, propellers, and other parts that will probably be purchased

later on in the construction phase of the project. The hovercraft plans that some schoolteachers

have used, as a science project is a very simplistic design. The project is designed to give

students an understanding of the principles involved in a hovercraft by building a simplistic

Company Rank Strength

R.Q.R Enterprises 5 Kit hovercraft, capacity needed, overpowered

R.Q.R Enterprises 4 Kit hovercraft, light, low cost

Hover Club 3 Arcticles explaning principle of Hovercrafts

Universal Hovercraft 3 Small to large scale kits available plus common parts such as fans

Science Project 2 Simple design using common materials

Hovertech 1 levitation using magnets

Elibra 1 levitaion using magnets

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continues, in order of date, with all significant tasks through the end of the semester. Each task is

broken down into sub-tasks and these may be broken down in to sub-tasks.

Attachment 1.

The design team is currently in the Conceptual Design Phase. As can be seen in the

attachment, this process is taking about two weeks and is broken down into four parts: identify

customers, identify problem, benchmarking, identify wants & constraints and creation of the

schedule. Though each of the sub-tasks are only assigned two weeks, they are really on-going

endeavors and will appear in other phases as well. The four tasks (numbered 8,21,34,47) shown

as clear diamonds represent tasks which will repeat throughout the semester but are not

continuous effort types.

Team ground rules are necessary to provide a guide to the team and to stand as a basis to

ensure that all members are contributing to the project as equally as possible. The team ground

rules as decided by our design team and approved by the NCDA advisors are listed in Table 4.

Table 4: Team Ground Rules

1. Each team member must participate equally in all activities.

2. Each member must complete individual work by the designated time.

3. Mandatory attendance at group meetings.

4. Constructive criticism only (criticize ideas not people).

5. Don't hold back suggestions.

6. Keep communication lines open at all times.

sdrev1.MPP

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7. Each member should know what the others are working on at any given

time.

This concludes the proposal. Any Questions or comments should be referred to any of the

persons listed on the title sheet listed under the heading Design Team.