About
The Tuppercraft is a project at Shenfield High School, in Essex. A small group of students, led by teacher Barry Adams, has created a fully functional racing hovercraft. The craft itself is almost exclusively made by the students, with the exception of the fibreglass hull, which was kindly donated.
Starting back in 2006, a small group of students were invited to participate in the project. Work started slowly, as the group originally split into two teams and worked on two separate hovercraft, the first completely from scratch, and the second with the donated, prefrabricated hull. This idea was abandoned in late 2007 when it was decided that all work would be diverted to the second craft.
With work progressing on the 52 skirting sections, engine renovation, electric wiring, hull preparation, blade creation, and everything else that could be thought of (at least 5 hours alone was dedicated to the balancing of the fanbelt!), the project reached an important milestone on May 22nd 2008, when it first lifted off the ground (much to the surprise of Paul Williams, who had his fingers in the carburettors at the time!). The next important milestone was its first flight around the school grounds, which occurred on June 11th 2008. It, however, flew for only a few seconds before grounding itself, which led to some frantic searching for the problem...
Much to the dismay of the team, it was found that multiple parts of the fuelling system were either worn away or simply unusable, and so a new system had to be devised. This system was completed on the 19th of June, and the team took the craft out to the field to test the new fuel system. It worked perfectly! The fuelling issues solved, members of the team started taking their first solo flights. However, all was not perfect *just* yet...
On one of the solo flights, the craft's engine dipped slightly. This caused the fan belt to shift backwards, placing immense pressure on the pulley backplate, which sheared off (taking all four of the bolt heads with it!). The shrapnel from the sheared bolts then entered the duct, where it badly damaged 2 of the blades, and cracked a third. The belt wrapped around the upper pulley and fan shaft. This left the hovercraft unflyable on the far side of the school's far field - the craft had to be taken back in pieces! New parts are on order to repair the damage.
Why "The Tuppercraft"?
Many people are probably wondering why the hovercraft has been named 'Tuppercraft'. Well it's quite simple really, but it relies on a trade secret that we can't disclose here, so use your imagination. We'll just say it involves grease containment, rotary blades, and an intricate system of lubricants, applied liberally with a straight-edge.
This website is related to a project run by Shenfield High School, but is not linked in anyway. Shenfield High School is not liable for the content of this website.