Nautilus X-Z-55

The Nautilus X-Z-55 was a prototype amphibious 'submarine car' from France. A period postcard presents it as "the latest of the French pocket submarines", calling it unsinkable, able to run on land, and unique in the world. The builder was R. Burnet of Chalon-sur-Saone, and the design took three years to develop. It was first shown publicly at the Paris International Boat Show and at the Mediterranean International Boat Show in 1960.

Design

The Nautilus has a long, pointed, torpedo-like hull of sheet steel carried on four exposed wheels, with a small raised cockpit housing amidships. It weighed about 1,000 kg and was 4.10 m long and 1.20 m wide. Two gearboxes allowed the engine to drive the wheels and the propeller at the same time, and a central control could be switched between wheel steering and the rudder.

According to a description in the archive it could cruise at 12 knots (about 22 km/h) on the surface and 6 knots submerged, and removing the wheels was said to double its speed. It carried a periscope of German origin and a snorkel, and was designed to rise to the surface automatically if the engine failed while diving.

Photographs taken much later show a surviving example, rusted and partly stripped, stored indoors with its porthole windows, cockpit housing and tall vertical tube still in place.

The archive folder also contains pictures of a similar, earlier submarine-shaped car kept in a sub-folder labelled 1935; that vehicle is described in a separate record.