Crafty Guy

This Connecticut educator sometimes floats through life, to his and his students’ delight.

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High school teacher Jim Benini has building hovercrafts down to a science. He and his principles of technology students at Parish Hill High School have built six working hovercrafts. Benini’s inspiration for the unique hobby-meets-lesson plan came from a 1990s issue of Popular Mechanics. The craft and instructions in the magazine were too complicated, but “I never forgot about it,” he says.

After a friend bought a hovercraft and gave him a lift in 2001, Benini knew it was time to try building one. The ride is “initially, a lot like flying a bar of soap over a frozen lake,” he says. “Your first time out is usually scary for the first minute or so, then you start to get a feel for how the craft handles. A few minutes after that you start to have so much fun you don’t want to head back to shore.” He says his students agree. “After their first ride, they also can’t wait to get back in and go again.”

The craft flies about six inches high, at up to 28 miles per hour. But the vehicles aren’t cheap or easy to build. Each hovercraft costs around $1,000 and construction typically takes 10 or 11 weeks, with more tinkering to follow. Last June, Benini and his students raced in the National Hoverally on Ohio’s Scioto River. “We plan to do the same this year,” he says.

—NADINE SIMPSON