What is an amphibious vehicle?

Two categories

Amphibious vehicles can be divided into two categories. Vehicles made for different types of terrain, such as rocky ground, ice and swamp areas as well as hovercrafts. Hovercrafts are vehicles that are propelled by a cushion of air and propellers.

Century-old

The idea of an amphibious vehicle is ancient. The inventor of the amphibious vehicle is Italian Raimondo di Sangro. The very first amphibious vehicle was a barge powered by steam power with wheels mounted under it. This was performed by American Oliver Evans in 1805. Doubts do exist as to whether this ship could actually travel across water and land under its own power.

Boats with wheels

Starting in 1899, the development of amphibious vehicles really took off. These were often boats with wheels, but starting in 1920 this changed. For military purposes and rescue teams, the development of the amphibious vehicle was interesting to follow.

World War II

In the World War II, the development of amphibious vehicles proceeded at a rapid pace. Porsche developed a “Schwimmwagen. The Americans also developed an amphibious vehicle called the DUKW with six-wheel drive and a payload of 3 tons. In the 1960s, the LARC-60 was put into service. This was a huge amphibious vehicle with a payload of 100 tons.

Amphicar

It was the Germans who were first to offer an amphibious vehicle for the private market. Between 1961 and 1968, the Amphicar 770 came on the market, designed by German designer Hans Trippel. The car has a self-supporting steel body, the lower part of which is a 1.5 mm thick tub. The doors can be double-locked from the inside to prevent water from entering. Read more about this special car here.

Hovercraft

Today, amphibious vehicles are still used in the military, and in England, a hovercraft carries passengers between Portsmouth and Isle of Wight. Earlier, you could also cross The Channel on giant hovercrafts, but this proved too expensive. In that regard, the hovercraft never became what was hoped for.

Convert

Can you convert a land vehicle into an amphibious vehicle? This is theoretically possible. If you waterproof your land vehicle and add a drive that works on land and water, you have an amphibious vehicle. Such a drive can be, for example, a propeller, propeller or water jet. As long as the vehicle stays afloat you are in good shape. The gentlemen of Top Gear went before you:

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