Navigation

Our Pages

Menu




What is an Airboat?

Airboats are essentially flat-bottomed vessels propelled in a forward direction by an aircraft-type propeller and powered by either an aircraft or automotive engine. The engine and propeller are enclosed in a protective metal cage that prevents objects, e.g., tree limbs, branches, clothing, beverage containers, or wildlife, from coming in contact with the whirling propeller, which could cause devastating damage to the vessel and traumatic injury to the operator and passengers.


The propeller produces a rearward column of air that propels the airboat forward. Steering is accomplished by forced air passing across vertical rudders. There must be a forceful airflow in order for the vessel to be steered. Airboats do not have brakes and are incapable of traveling in reverse. Stopping and reversing direction are dependent upon good operator/pilot/driver skills.


The operator/pilot/driver and in most instances the passengers, are seated in elevated seats that allow visibility over swamp vegetation. The improved visibility permits the operator and passengers to observe floating objects, stumps and animals in the airboat's path.


The characteristic flat-bottomed design of the airboat, in conjunction with the fact that there are no operating parts below the waterline, permit the vessel to be easily navigated through shallow swamps and marshes, in canals, rivers and lakes as well as on frozen lakes. The airboat's design makes it the ideal vessel for flood and ice rescue operations.


Steering the airboat is accomplished by swiveling vertical rudders positioned at the rear (stern) of the vessel. The propeller produces a column of air that produces forward momentum. That column of air passes across the rudders, which are directed through the forward and backward movement of vertical "stick" located on the operator's left side. The "stick" is attached to the rudders via teleflex cable or linked rods. Overall steering and control is a function of water current, wind, water depth and propeller thrust.


The sound produced by an airboat's propeller and engine can be loud; the majority of the sound is produced by the propeller. Modern airboat designs and modern technology have significantly reduced the sound that an airboat produces. Modern airboat engines are equipped with mufflers and multi-blade carbon-fiber propellers that greatly reduce the sound emitted by the airboat.


Airboats vary in size from 10-foot hunt/trail boats, with a two- to three-passenger capacity, to large 18-passenger and greater tour boats.


Airboats are a very popular means of transportation in the Florida Everglades, and Louisiana Bayou, where they are used for fishing, hunting and eco-tourism.


When Was the first Airboat built!

History of Airboats


An early form of the air boat


The first airboat, called the Ugly Duckling, was built in 1905 in Nova Scotia, Canada by a team lead by Dr. Alexander Graham Bell. It was used to test various engines and prop configurations. An associate of Dr. Bell, Glenn Curtiss (of airplane manufacturing fame) is reported to have registered the first airboat in Florida, USA in 1920. It was called the Curtis Scooter[1] and it had a closed cockpit design.


By the 1930s homemade airboats began appearing in the swamps and marshes of Florida and Louisiana. One company in Florida claims to have been providing airboat rides as entertainment since the mid 1930s. Over the years a variety of designs were tried and. through trial-and-error, the standard design used today arose: an open, flat bottom boat with an engine mounted on the back, the driver sitting in an elevated position, and a cage to protect the propeller from objects flying into them. One well documented case of a homemade design (though not the first) was an airboat built by staff at the Bear River Bird Refugee near Brigham City, Utah in the 1940s. It appears to have involved collaborative efforts by three employees of the refuge - Leo young, G. Hortin Jensen and Cecil Williams.


A story in Ducks Unlimited magazine in 1987 mentioned Young and Jensen and dated the building of the first boat in 1950. Refuge records, however, show the first boat came into use in 1943, with several photos of running air boats dated 1947. Prior to the introduction of the airboat, refuge biologists had to either walk through shallow water and deep, sticky mud or push unpowered flat-bottom boats with long poles. Staff had experimented with a boat called the "Mud Queen," which had small paddle wheels on either side that pushed the boat. They build their first airboat nicknamed "Alligator I" from a flat-bottom boat pushed along by an aircraft engine purchased for $99.50. Young reported that he called the first airboat an "air-thrust boat." Once word got out about the boat, Leo Young built and sold boats all over the world.