With Phibian, Gibbs Technologies Unleashes a Land Shark Producing a flying car is an enduring goal of aeronautical engineers, but until then, swimming cars ably provide the gee-whiz factor. The most recent proof came this week from Gibbs Technologies, a company founded in 1996 by Alan Gibbs, an entrepreneur from New Zealand. On Tuesday, the company demonstrated its newest model on land and in the waters of the Potomac River, at the Columbia Island Marina in Arlington, Va. The Phibian, a sinister-looking mashup of patrol boat and patrol truck, performed with the Capitol and Washington Monument on the horizon, while members of the American Society of Naval Engineers, in town for their annual meeting, looked on from the riverbank. The so-called amphitruck can transition from terra firma to aquatic mode in under 10 seconds, and reach 30 miles per hour on water and highway speeds on land, the company claims. It is driven by a 500-horsepower twin-turbo diesel engine with twin jets, and is built primarily of carbon fiber. The Phibian's smaller sibling, called the Humdinga, uses a single V-8 and is not explicitly intended for patrol and rescue applications. Like a James Bond product, the Phibian's wheels fold inward when the craft heads for the damp. Gibbs offers a full array of options, including radar and a chemical toilet. The craft can be configured to carry as many as 15 people or up to 1,500 kilograms, roughly 3,300 pounds, of equipment. The Phibian is part of a great tradition of earth and water cruisers like the DUKW of World War II, a General Motors-built transport re-engineered for beach landings, now commonly spotted ferrying tourists in harbor cities like Baltimore and Boston. "Phibian and Humdinga deliver a revolutionary and highly effective solution to the growing demands placed on today's transport, first responder and military communities," Neil Jenkins, chairman of Gibbs, said in a prepared statement. "Natural disasters in recent memory, such as the earthquake and tsunamis in Japan, Thailand, Sri Lanka and elsewhere in Asia; as well as the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, illustrate the need for amphibians as capable, versatile and efficient as Phibian and Humdinga," he added. Gibbs also produces an amphibious car, the Aquada, which can reach 100 m.p.h. on land and exceed 30 m.p.h. on water, the company says. Richard Branson crossed the English Channel in an Aquada in 2004, setting a speed record for amphibious vehicles in the process. He managed the feat in 1 hour 40 minutes, smashing the previous record by more than four hours. The Quadski, a sort of amphibious A.T.V., rounds out the company line.