{"id":2103,"date":"2013-06-05T12:01:05","date_gmt":"2013-06-05T12:01:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ecm.eng.auburn.edu\/wp\/emag\/?p=2103"},"modified":"2013-06-07T16:18:37","modified_gmt":"2013-06-07T16:18:37","slug":"hovering-tigers-take-on-the-tide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ecm.eng.auburn.edu\/wp\/emag\/?p=2103","title":{"rendered":"Hovering Tigers take on the Tide"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"hovercraft<\/a><\/p>\n

Hovercrafts are still a figment of imagination to many, a vehicle that only exists in movies or in high-tech laboratories. In reality, hovercrafts have been around for more than 50 years, and few know that Auburn University has been building and racing them for a full decade. They are nothing like Hollywood models, and according to Thomas Wills<\/strong>, sophomore in polymer and fiber engineering, \u201cIt\u2019s not like anything you\u2019ve ridden before.\u201d<\/p>\n

Auburn\u2019s team, the Hovering Tigers, hasn\u2019t raced in recent years, but that changed in April, when a new era of an old rivalry began. The team won the University Hoverbowl Challenge on Lake Lurleen in Tuscaloosa, facing off against the University of Alabama\u2019s new hovercraft team. Auburn\u2019s team members include Wills, Garrett Blackburn<\/strong>, Mary Palmer Cook<\/strong>, and Tom Fitzpatrick<\/strong>, as well as Holland Bankston<\/strong>, Nick Johnson<\/strong>, Alex Avery<\/strong>, Tam Thornton<\/strong>, Sanyam Shirgaonkar<\/strong> and Velislav Stamenov.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe goal of this race was to get other schools involved, for it to grow,\u201d said Blackburn, team captain and senior in polymer and fiber engineering. He believes the Auburn-Alabama rivalry is an appropriate place to start this trend. \u201cI can see other schools in the SEC joining in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Teams from across the country were invited to compete in the race, sponsored by Hoverclub of America, but the Auburn-Alabama rivalry provided a particular interest to locals. \u201cWe had a competition,\u201d said Kent Gano<\/strong>, racing director of Hoverclub of America. “I believe the race could be the start of a collegiate division of hovercraft racing.”<\/p>\n

Auburn team members put in long hours to iron out the kinks before the race and fit in practice time for drivers to become accustomed to handling the vehicle. Their orange hovercraft, one of two vehicles the team races, is primarily fiberglass, a heavy, but inexpensive material compared to the carbon fiber used for the team’s black hovercraft.<\/p>\n

<\/div>
\"Flickr\"<\/a> view  Auburn Engineering<\/a> on flickr   \"Auburn<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Hovercraft<\/a><\/p>\n

Continued…<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em>The orange craft can travel on land and water, and is supported by a cushion of pressurized air \u2014 a fan controls the lift and moves air behind the hovercraft, giving it forward motion.<\/p>\n

Bicycle handlebars orient a rudder that controls turns. The team chose to race the orange craft because the vehicle has been the recent \u201cguinea pig\u201d in the team\u2019s shop. It looks intimidating and complex, but according to Blackburn, it\u2019s actually quite simple.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"\u201cThis is kind of the next step up,\u201d said Blackburn. \u201cThere\u2019s lots of trial and error, and a lot of tweaking and adjustments.\u201d He adds that there is plenty of skill available to build the vehicle because team members come from a variety of majors.<\/p>\n

The Hovering Tigers team was formed in 2003 with help from former polymer and fiber engineering faculty member Fissal Abd Elhady<\/strong>, Peter Schwartz<\/strong>, the team\u2019s current faculty adviser and department head, and technical adviser Jeff Thompson<\/strong>, who is the polymer and fiber engineering composites lab technician at Auburn. He supervises and assists students with work performed inside the lab and at testing sites.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a number of \u2018gearheads\u2019 and some beginners in mechanics,\u201d Thompson said. \u201cIt gives the students that grew up with grease under their fingernails a chance to put together their own creation and test it out in an exciting competition.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team gives students practical hands-on design experience, and provides cross-disciplinary interactions in a team setting. \u201cIt\u2019s cool to see the stuff we\u2019ve been learning in class and having a chance to put it into application,\u201d said Blackburn.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t really have to know anything about this stuff,\u201d said Cook, as she watched team member Fitzpatrick drive the craft across the open fields at Auburn\u2019s Research Park on South College Street recently. \u201cYou just have to want to know about it. And you need to be OK with getting your hands dirty.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div>
\"Flickr\"<\/a> view  Auburn Engineering<\/a> on flickr   \"Auburn<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hovercrafts are still a figment of imagination to many, a vehicle that only exists in movies or in high-tech laboratories. In reality, hovercrafts have been around for more than 50 years, and few know that Auburn University has been building and racing them for a full decade. They are nothing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[261,191,258,259,260],"yoast_head":"\nHovering Tigers take on the Tide » Auburn Engineer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ecm.eng.auburn.edu\/wp\/emag\/?p=2103\" \/>\n<link rel=\"next\" href=\"https:\/\/ecm.eng.auburn.edu\/wp\/emag\/?p=2103&page=2\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hovering Tigers take on the Tide » Auburn Engineer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Hovercrafts are still a figment of imagination to many, a vehicle that only exists in movies or in high-tech laboratories. 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