Airboat

Out in the swampy places you have to find new ways of getting around. Seated next to your enormous floating fan, you feel like the most comical sailor there ever was. But this spinning contraption is about the only thing that will send you swiftly over the thick waters in these parts. Thank your lucky stars someone was smart enough to invent it. An airboat, also known as a fanboat, is a flat-bottomed vessel propelled in a forward direction by an aircraft-type propeller and powered by either an aircraft or automotive engine. Airboats are a very popular means of transportation in the Florida Everglades as well as Louisiana Bayous, where they are used for fishing, hunting and eco-tourism, and in other marshy and/or shallow areas where a standard inboard or outboard engine with a submerged propeller would be impractical. The first airboat, called the Ugly Duckling, was built in 1905 in Nova Scotia, Canada by a team led by Dr. Alexander Graham Bell. It was used to test various engines and prop configurations. An associate of Dr. Bell, Glenn Curtiss, is reported to have registered the first airboat in Florida, USA in 1920. It was called the Curtis Scooter. http://www.soundsnap.com/watercraft_18_air_boat_riding_at_slow_speed_sfx_bible_2011