Fast Track Amphibian LLC — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: Fast Track Amphibian has made a key breakthrough that allows amphibious vehicles to use ru

Description

Fast Track Amphibian has made a key breakthrough that allows amphibious vehicles to use rubber tracks to provide propulsion during water-mode operations. Without the need to switch drive trains, extremely rapid transitions between water and land-mode operation are now possible, and the weight of the second drive train is eliminated. We have built a 1/5th scale-model and an 18"manned testbed, the FT1 to research and develop the technology, as well as demonstrating the capability for high-speed operations on land and in the water. In Phase I, we propose to take advantage of these existing platforms by instrumenting them to collect performance data. This data will be used to refine the analytical methodology used to predict vehicle performance. Research testing will also be performed to improving propulsive efficiency of the track. From this, we will characterize a mid-size vehicle that meets the Navy"s stated 1-ton requirement. We propose two alternate options to follow-on the Phase I effort that prepare for a Phase II demonstrator: alternate 1 prepares for enhancing the sub-scale FT1, while alternate 2 prepares for a full-scale development model.