T
he dream of a fully functional
amphibious vehicle dates back to the
mid-1700s, when an Italian prince drove
a modifi ed land/water coach into the
T yrrhenian Sea. Despite the odd universal
desire to drive our cars into the nearest lake,
only the Amphicar, a steel beaut y with st ylish
tailfi ns, achieved anything close to commercial
success, selling 4,500 units in the Sixties.
Other ‘amphibians’ have had greater success- namely amphibious aircraft. That’s because a
simple amphibious plane or helicopter can be
made by adding sturdy fl oats to a pair of
landing skids. But amphibious land/water
vehicles face many more obstacles, because the
engineering rules of the water are often in
direct confl ict with the rules of the land. For
example, a high-speed watercraft needs to
break the plane of the water to reduce drag.
Picture the wide, hydrodynamic shape of a
speedboat hull, which lifts the nose of the boat
up and out of the water. The body of a sports
car, on the other hand, needs to be low and fl at
to reduce drag and safely hug the road during
sharp turns. So how do you engineer the body
of a vehicle that can navigate both surf and turf
with ease and speed?
Modern amphibious vehicles have several
key advantages over earlier models. Materials,
for example. The Amphicar was pure steel,
which not only rusts and corrodes, but makes it
heav y as a rock. To keep a steel craft afl oat, youAmphibious
machines
Take a look at the cutting-edge vehicles that
are able to jump between land, water and air
as a result of some innovative engineering
Quadski
Crew: 1
Length: 3.2m (10.5ft)
Width: 1.6m (5.2ft)
Height: 1.4m (4.6ft)
Weight: 535kg (1,180lb)
Max land speed:
72km/h (45mph)
Max water speed:
72km/h (45mph)The statistics...
SEA