Military mishaps with amphibious cars
- By Richard Branson -
- Feb 16, 2012
The story starts eight years ago when we broke the Guinness World Record for the first and fastest crossing of the English Channel by an amphibious vehicle. Virgin Atlantic and I completed the Channel Challenge in a Gibbs Aquada, travelling from Dover to Calais in under two hours.
A cross between a boat with wheels and a waterproof car, the Gibbs Aquada reached 100mph on land and over 30mph on water. It was great fun to drive and was also perfect for taking on all sorts of record-breaking efforts.
I had agreed to be the first customer and therefore was surprised when the company mysteriously took it off the market, straight after our crossing! No explanation was given. The company just seemed to disappear. Now all is clear. The US military saw the success of our crossing and brought up all the rights. Here are images of the US military vehicle. It is amazing and sad how the military can buy up the rights for something and stop the public using it.
Final image from Metro
By Richard Branson. Founder of Virgin Group
