According to Motorboating records in the Guinness Book of World Records, the history of inflatable boats can be traced back to 880 BC. King Ashurnasirpal II of Assyria ordered his troops to continuously inflate greased animal skins to make them more durable. Expand so that it can pass through the river! In ancient China, during the Song and Ming dynasties, people also used sealed inflated animal skins to pass through rivers. The emergence of inflatable boats is mainly due to its speed
In 1839, the Duke of Wellington first tested the pontoons of an inflatable boat. In 1840, the British Thomas Hancock designed an inflatable raft and put it into use. An introduction to his work was included in the book "The Origin and Process of British Natural Rubber" published a few years later. In 1844, Halkett, a naval captain, designed a wheel-shaped inflatable boat, which was used many times on Arctic expeditions. Frenchman Clement Ader also designed a floating vessel. In fact, many other pioneers invented inflatable rafts, which heralded the birth of the "inflatable boat." In 1913, the German Albert Meyer came up with a rather novel design. By 1920, his company, Pneum, was established. Boote, is marketing his "air" boats, 9 of which have been used in the German army, and gradually evolved into assault boats. In France and the UK, ZODIAC and RFD successively launched the first modern rubber boats. In 1919, RFD founder Ray Foster Dagnall tested an inflatable boat on Lake Wisely in England and refined his design in the 1930s. This was the ancestor of the later one-person inflatable life raft. In France in 1934, Pierre Debroutelle designed the prototype of the inflatable boat.
The first modern rubber boat was used in the French Navy. ZODIAC's development model triggered the rapid development of the civilian and military rubber boat industry. Correspondingly, Pierre Debroutelle designed the first U-shaped rubber boat in 1937, and he applied for a patent for this design on August 10, 1943. It is also the most straightforward version of a sports and recreational inflatable boat to this day. Today, assault boats have been widely used in military operations and disaster relief operations. Since then many new manufacturers, new models and new designs have been introduced to the market. Inflatable boats are no longer just small rubber boats carried on the back of a large yacht! It can reach 45 feet long or more! "Rigid" fiberglass hulls and aluminum hulls are gradually replacing the original inflatable bottom! Luxurious and beautiful decorative parts and even cabins have also appeared on rubber boats. Corresponding to its name, today, inflatable boats often only mean that the pontoons of the boat are inflated, and the bottom of the boat may be made of fiberglass or aluminum. However, in any case, inflatable boats have always existed and become more and more popular. It is becoming more and more popular among people!