'32 INSURANCE MAN FATHERS SEA JEEPS

MECHANICALLY minded dreamers from fifteenth-century Leonardo da Vinci, and perhaps before, have hoped to achieve self-propelling vehicles that would be serviceable to man on water as well as on land. Until recently it was accomplished only in fiction. Now, Roger W. Hofheins '32, onetime Buffalo, N. Y., insurance man, has apparently done the trick.

Reported the syndicated Washington Merry-Go-Round on June 7: "Eighty thousand Americans want to win the war by submitting their inventions to the government Obviously, most of this product is chaff, but there is enough wheat to make a good crop. Inventors Council boasts of developing such things as: Roger Hofheins' amphibian car which can travel at 70 miles an hour on the highway or can cross Lake Erie. It was brought to the Council a year ago, a model was built and tested, and now it's actually in the Army."

According to Mr. Hofheins himself, it not only is in the Army, but the Navy also has given him a contract for amphibians, and service and tactical tests are being carried on at the present time.

Mr. Hofheins dreamed up the vehicle several years ago and, in December 1940, was able to raise enough capital to organize the Amphibian Car Corporation and proceed to build the first machines which he called Aqua-Cheetahs. Many structural changes have been made since then but the radical design of the hull and the suspension system is responsible for the amphibian's ability to pass the severe tests put on it by the Army and Navy in reconnaisance work, transportation of troops, bridge-head acquisition and communication details. Its potential uses in the postwar world point to the beginnings of a new automotive industry of permanent character stemming from Bualo.

R. W. HOFHEINS '32, INVENTOR AND MANUFACTURER OF ARMY AMPHIBIANS