{"id":13410,"date":"2024-09-21T09:40:14","date_gmt":"2024-09-21T09:40:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=13410"},"modified":"2024-09-21T10:23:47","modified_gmt":"2024-09-21T10:23:47","slug":"car-parts-fiberglass-and-a-dream-how-a-teacher-built-a-hovercraft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=13410","title":{"rendered":"Car Parts, Fiberglass and a Dream: How a Teacher Built a Hovercraft"},"content":{"rendered":"

Robert Tymofichuk, a teacher in Alberta, Canada, spent nearly 2,000 hours building an operational hovercraft from salvaged car parts and with no blueprint.<\/p>\n

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On a cold spring day in a small garage in Alberta, Canada, an engine revved up and an improbable machine \u2014 fabricated from auto parts, a hand-sewn rubber skirt and an abandoned fiberglass hull \u2014 came to life.<\/p>\n

A homemade hovercraft began to rise off the ground with a small crew standing by.<\/p>\n

The successful liftoff was the culmination of a lifelong fascination of Robert Tymofichuk, 55, who spent about 1,800 hours<\/a> over a year working on it.<\/p>\n

And, to the gratitude of passengers, it comes with heated seats.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re going through all that hassle, you might as well make yourself comfortable,\u201d Mr. Tymofichuk said. He repurposed the seats from a Volkswagen, so the heating coils were already installed.<\/p>\n

Mr. Tymofichuk\u2019s hovercraft now sails above land and water, a bright red gem coasting over the Saskatchewan River. With speeds that can reach around 40 m.p.h. over water \u2014 faster on ice \u2014 it might be hard to catch the ingenuity in its Frankenstein design.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The cab was cut from a 1997 Jeep Grand Cherokee; the engine once revved up a 1985 Toyota Celica; and 107 hand-sewn rubber segments, courtesy of Mr. Tymofichuk\u2019s wife, help to direct low-pressure air beneath the craft so that it rises eight inches above the ground.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Robert Tymofichuk, a teacher in Alberta, Canada, spent nearly 2,000 hours building an operational hovercraft from salvaged car parts and with no blueprint.On a cold spring day in a small garage in Alberta, Canada, an engine revved up and an improbable machine \u2014 fabricated from auto parts, a hand-sewn rubber skirt and an abandoned fiberglass hull \u2014 came to life.A homemade hovercraft began to rise off the ground with a small crew standing by.The successful liftoff was the culmination of a lifelong fascination of Robert Tymofichuk, 55, who spent about 1,800 hours over a year working on it.And, to the gratitude of passengers, it comes with heated seats.\u201cIf you\u2019re going through all that hassle, you might as well make yourself comfortable,\u201d Mr. Tymofichuk said. He repurposed the seats from a Volkswagen, so the heating coils were already installed.Mr. Tymofichuk\u2019s hovercraft now sails above land and water, a bright red gem coasting over the Saskatchewan River. With speeds that can reach around 40 m.p.h. over water \u2014 faster on ice \u2014 it might be hard to catch the ingenuity in its Frankenstein design.The cab was cut from a 1997 Jeep Grand Cherokee; the engine once revved up a 1985 Toyota Celica; and 107 hand-sewn rubber segments, courtesy of Mr. Tymofichuk\u2019s wife, help to direct low-pressure air beneath the craft so that it rises eight inches above the ground.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13412,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13410"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13410\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13413,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13410\/revisions\/13413"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}