Dragonfly Outboard. Cool?
Start it up!
Here is something you dont see everyday. Seems like a genus idea. But of course execution can sometimes be the enimy of genus. Which may explain why we dont see many of these today. But thank god, cause it sure is fun to collect the strange and interesting ideas. A time of no focus groups, or board meetings. Just an idea and some big balls! Like going out in the Atlantic to go fishin in a Sea Skiff big balls.
Cool
Says it all
very cool
All Season
Just flick the switch
“Not in Spain, but it takes bout half a day; if we travel by my Dragonfly…”
I like the yellow caution paint on the blades. That tells you that when you put your hand in the cage, stay away from that area.
Fun to run but do not plan to go anywhere quickly and expect to not have any hearing for awhile shortly after starting it.
Leave it to Clay Thompson to find something like that. Probably used as a fan in OK.
That’s what I thought it would be cool for. A garage fan. Of course the exaust May kill you. Would need a fan to blow out the fan exaust. And so it’s on ebay
Hunting or fishing? Dear God, this contraption would scare away any and all critters in a five mile radius.
Wonder how many are out there and if any are still in use? There has to be one hillbilly somewhere….
Cant worry about that now though as I am going to take the boat out today to play on the Big Blue Waves that are out there today…whoo hoo!
I am assuming it wasn’t that great to use for trolling. And don’t even ask about reverse.
What about reverse? I had to ask.
And imagine following this thing on a wood boat show tour.
Not sure if this will post – but in ’92 my good friend and pilot Al Packard and I bought an air-cushion vehicle with the intent of running it in the annual “Do the Slough” event our local ACBS chapter used to have fun with. This thing had a big snowmobile motor, huge prop and we sat behind the whole thing… Needless to say, it was a wet and wild ride. Not a huge success that day, but a lot of fun. I got it about a 1/4 mile down the lake on a test run before I flipped it! 🙂
On the Susquehanna River above Harrisburg, PA where – for much of the year – if your boat sinks you just get out and wade to shore, the river there can accurately be described as a mile wide and deep as a parking lot puddle. Any propeller outboards would have have a life expectancy measured in boat lengths thus air motors of various cottage-industry manufacture were/still are fairly common> If Woodyboaters want a wooden boat adventure of a different kind, I recommend taking a trip on the Millersburg Ferry next spring when the river is high enough to float it again. It is reportedly the last wooden paddlewheel ferry in America. In less environmentally sensitive times, the ferry operator was known to send a bulldozer into the river to bulldoze up a wall of rocks across the river so as to provide an upstream pool deep enough to keep the ferry afloat.
I wonder if the one in the youtube video is this one from the Mikkelson Auction?
Funny that this thing that is all fan has a separate cooling fan for the engine.
A Gun Lake friend found one on ebay and had it restored. It’s very cool looking. 40 mph on the ice, eh? I’ll suggest he try! 😬