Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

According to the Stanly News & Press from July 9, 1957, the boat in this photo belonged to Robert G. Britt of Salisbury.

Britt had been testing the Jacobs 250 horsepower airplane engine he had mounted to the rear of the boat over a couple of weeks while visiting Badin Lake.

According to the article, the boat was “well equipped with pumps, auxiliary engines, batteries, lights, radios, and pushbutton controls.”

The boat, of course, did not fly but it traveled along the water in a manner similar to an airboat that would be found even today in the Florida Everglades.

According to an account in the Raleigh News & Observer it could travel from 50 to 75 miles per hour.

{Lewis P. Bramlett – Stanly County Historical Society}