Amphibious vehicle

摘要

An amphibious vehicle achieves a stable ride, maneuverability, and high speed. The vehicle includes a hull having a “V” center portion with outboard sponsons. The sponsons reside between the front wheel wells and the rear wheels wells for improving lift and transition to planing. Shallow tunnels begin in rear portions of the front wheel wells and taper into the sponsons to release water trapped in the wheel wells. Inward facing turning edges also reside between the front and rear wheel wells and improve in-water handling. Wheels are retractable by pneumatic cylinders in parallel with air shock absorbers and suspension cutout in the hull allow the suspension to lower through the hull. Flaps reside under suspension members and rise to cover the suspension cutouts when the wheels are retractable when the wheels are raised to reduce drag. A Morse cable couple a rack and pinion unit to a jet drive.

主权项

1. An amphibious vehicle comprising:
a frame; two front wheels attached to the frame; port and starboard front wheel wells for the front wheels, the front wheel wells formed in at least one of the hull and the body; two rear wheels attached to the frame; a hull attached to the frame, the hull comprising;
a bow;a stern;a bow portion extending between the bow at least one front axle of the at least one front wheel;a mid portion between the at least one front axle and rear axles of the rear wheels;a stern portion extending from the rear axles to the stern; anda “V”shaped longitudinal center portion extending along a centerline of the hull from the bow to the stern; a body carried above the hull; a power plant providing power; a jet drive receiving power from the power plant and residing under the power plant inside the hull at the stern of the hull for providing in-water propulsion; and a drive mechanism receiving power from the power plant for driving the rear wheels for providing on-land propulsion; port and starboard front control arms moveably attached between the front wheels and the frame inboard of the front wheels for allowing vertical motion of the front wheels, the control arms having a front control arm lowered position for extending the front wheels for on-road driving and front control arm raised positions for retracting the front wheels for in-water driving; front suspension cutouts formed in the hull bottom vertically aligned with the front control arms, the front control arms lowerable through the front suspension cutouts when the front wheels are extended for on-road driving and the front control arms raisable above the front suspension cutouts then the front wheels are retracted for in-water driving; and moveable front flaps attached along one edge to the hull and vertically aligned with the front suspension cutouts and residing planar to the bottom of the hull when the front control arms are in the front control arm raised positions smoothing at least a portion of the front suspension cutouts with the hull, and lowerable to vertically separate from the bottom of the hull to allow the front suspension control arms to assume the front control arm lowered position, the moveable front flaps attached to front control arms by straps and are lifted to reside planar to the bottom of the hull by the straps when the front wheels are retracted for in-water driving.