Airboat Racing History

Laviolette Photos courtesy Airboating Magazine Archive

- David Straycat”

There is an adage in the automotive racing industry "If you have one car you can have a nice drive. If you have two cars that represents a race." The same axiom applies to airboats, and about anything that moves with a motor.

Since the early days of airboats, the innovators were interested in making them faster and racing them against other airboat innovators. They were always pushing the limits of their machines, tweaking them and pushing the limits a bit further.

The founding fathers, so to speak, of airboats like Enrico Forlanini in Italy, Alexander Graham Bell in Novia Scotia or Glenn Curtiss in the United States all worked to create a craft with more power and greater speed.