Re: How can we make a Flying Carpet fly across a stage using 3 flight principal

Greetings, Dave:

You don't say how far off the ground (stage) you want your carpet to fly.
If you want more than a few inches, then there is probably no practical
way available to make it "really fly" -- safely, that is.  NASA has an
old saying: "You can make anything fly if you put a powerful enough engine
on it."  But you don't want large propeller blades or jet/rocket exhaust
on your stage.  That is why the Theatre generally uses thin wires to
support "flying" objects.  For a carpet, a thin solid framework underneath
it lets it maintain its shape, as several wires support it at the corners. 
The framework is hidden by having the carpet's edges drape over it.  A
fairly complex mechanism above the stage controls the motions of the
wires, and thus the object.

However, if a couple of inches of height is satisfactory, then you may be
able to manage something.  Find someone who has ever played a game called
Air Hockey.  This game requires a special "table", about the size of a
billiards table.  The surface of an Air Hockey table is full of small
holes, and a blower located underneath forces air upwards through all of
them.  A plastic "hockey disk" floats just above the surface of the table,
and moves nearly frictionlessly.  The two players of the game try to move
the disk towards "goal zones".

Next, look up some information about Air Cushion Vehicles, or Hovercraft.
Such a vehicle has a stiff flat bottom (you need a thin panel underneath
and well-attached to your carpet), surrounded by a "skirt" (which would be
the draped edges of your carpet).  The sides of the skirt must be airtight
(you need to line the underside of the carpet with plastic), and it
bottommost edge must not flap about (you need to sew coat-hanger wires or
equivalent all around the inside of the DRAPED edge.

A hovercraft works by blowing large amounts of air between its underside
and the ground; the skirt lets pressure build up enough to lift the whole
thing a little ways off the ground (the height of the skirt).  In this
suggestion, however, the air would be blown in from underneath, like on an
Air Hockey table.  Air escapes from a hovercraft only at the edge of the
skirt, where it touches the ground.  Directional control of a hovercraft
is usually provided by mounting a second fan on it; in your case, however, 
merely lifting the skirt a bit, at one small place, should let more air
flow out at that place, providing a simple reaction drive.

It is easy to see how it might be unacceptable to drill a million holes in
your stage.  I would suggest that you plot the planned course of your
carpet, and build a carpet-wide, whole-path-long, inch-high duct.  The top
of this duct would be drilled full of holes (they probably should be a bit
bigger than the ones on an Air Hockey table); the on-stage end of the duct
would be sealed; the off-stage end of the duct would be connected to the
most powerful blowers that you can find.  Perhaps the width of the duct
should be a little wider than the carpet, to accommodate steering errors.
Good luck!