Overseas Interest In N.Z. Floating Car

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31097, 28 June 1966, Page 7

Overseas Interest In N.Z. Floating Car

“The Press” Special Service MASTERTON, June 26. A Wairarapa sheepfarmer, Mr M. Hume, who led a fighter squadron at Biggin Hill in the Second World War, has patented a floating car which is arousing interest in British, New Zealand and American manufacturing circles. Mr Hume's idea is simple. Aluminium buoyancy tanks containing plastic foam support the vehicle in the water. A friction drive from the wheels of the car operates propellers, which push the vehicle along at a fast walking pace. Mr Hume thinks the device, which he estimated could be marketed for less than £3OO, would be useful in Canada and the United States where distances are great and rivers must be forded. He said people have been making and selling amphibious vehicles for years. “They

are expensive to buy and to maintain and nobody has successfully produced a device to make any vehicle amphibious,” he said. Many farmers or ranchers in New Zealand or Canada have a stretch of water to cross to get to town. With the “amphibicar” they could drop the device after fording the river. On their return journey they could attach it in a few minutes, drop it off on the other side of the river and leave it for future use. The British Trade Commissioner in Wellington, the United States commercial attache and such firms as Saunders-Roe are inqu riag about the vehicle’s possibilities.

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