ARTICLE| CONSERVATION
Airboats and Their
Use in Conservation Actions By Vitza Cabrera, Ricardo Domínguez and Sean Meade Photos by Sean Meade
A
t the beginning of the 1900’s the airboat was invented, although it is unclear where and how it all started, it is true that the first ones were completely different from the modern ones. A collection of trial-and-error lead to the actual configuration: a flat bottom, the pilot situated in an elevated position, the engine on the back, and the propel protected by a cage.
Some records suggest that the first uses of this kind of boats was in a military context, but in the 1930s and 1940s they started getting popular in Florida, USA, by people living around the Everglades. Here, people saw a great advantage as they allow navigation through shallow waters, letting them to have access to places they couldn’t arrived before or that required lots of effort to get in.
JULY 2020
36
