Transport:

You might find it hard to believe your own eyes when you happen to holiday lately in sunny Malta. In the harbour basin of Valletta you can actually see a motor-coach cavorting – its form makes it look a bit sedate on land, as if it had been shaped by over-ambitious designers. But it is these round shapes which make the coach a quick means of transport even in water.

We are referring to the Amphicoach, a coach which has learnt how to swim. This unusual vehicle is the brainchild of George Smith, an enterprising businessman from Scotland who has chosen Malta as his second home. George Smith had the idea of taking tourists arriving by ship in Valletta on a harbour cruise and then on a tour of the surrounding area without the need for passengers to change the vehicle. This was the starting point for the first designs of an amphibious coach, a unique vehicle of its kind world-wide.

Long years of development and successful TUV inspection

Many years of development followed, in which George Smith and his team refined the concept of the floating coach more and more. They found out that they had to combine two principally different worlds in one vehicle concept: the characteristics of a ship, which had to meet all maritime regulations, and a coach, which had to fulfill the requirements of all European roads and carriage regulations. Although they did use commercial components and modules, such as the power train of a lorry, these were fused into a unique concept. In summer 2006 the first prototype was submitted for a comprehensive certification in the form of a maritime as well as a road-worthiness inspection.

The inspection was indeed remarkable, since several hundred pages of European directives and sets of regulations were applicable. The TUV team had to inspect every little detail however small, and all this at temperatures of nearly 40°C in the shade. The scope of the inspections covered elementary points such as exhaust emission characteristic and noise emissions. The basic bus directive describes in detail which safety measures have to be in place for the passengers. Therefore an extensive rollover test had to be performed, which simulates the tilting of a bus with subsequent toppling-over.

 Beyond the jungle of standards

After several months of reworking of the prototype the certification of the coach for road traffic in Malta could also be completed positively. “We did not know how extensive the legal provisions for a bus are, but together with TUV AUSTRIA AUTOMOTIVE GMBH we also managed to meet the safety-relevant points successfully “, says George Smith, the managing director of the company GSSV (George Smith Specialists Vehicles), who already received many enquiries from all over the world for his amphibious coach.

In the meantime the design of the Amphicoach was completely reworked, the body gets more lift, the propeller drive was replaced by a modern water jet drive and the cabin design by a modern light-weight construction. Several specimens will soon be delivered to Korea and also to Europe. This is reason enough to fly back to Malta again shortly to inspect the latest changes, because trust in the services of the TUV AUSTRIA group is a guarantee for safety word-wide.

Author: Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Markus Guggenberger, MBA