Zodiac Nautic is a French company best known for their widely used

inflatable boat An inflatable boat is a lightweight boat constructed with its sides and bow made of flexible tubes containing pressurised gas. For smaller boats, the floor and hull is often flexible, while for boats longer than , the floor typically consist ...

s. Zodiac Nautic finds its origins in the “Zodiac airships and aviation French company”, specialized in the production of airships. In the 1930s Pierre Debroutelle, one of its engineers, invented one of the first prototypes of inflatable boats for the Aéronavale. In the 1960s, the company turned to the leisure industry to accommodate the “vacationers” and their growing interest in recreational boating. In financial trouble, the company was sold to private owners in 2015.FLIBS 2015: Zodiac Nautic president maps out brand’s revival
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Zodiac boat

The buoyancy tubes of Zodiac boats have several compartments, separated by waterproof partitions. Thanks to its important air reserves, the boat keeps its ability to float and stays conceptually unsinkable when fully loaded, even with a deflated compartment. Zodiac inflatable boats are commonly used by the

United States Military The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six service branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. The president of the United States is the ...

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Zodiac Milpro Zodiac Milpro, headquartered in Paris, France, is a company that manufactures inflatable boats and rigid hull inflatable boats for the emergency services, military and professional users, including heavy-duty inflatable work boats that can carry ...

(Military and Professional) boats, which is a separate company also created during the breakup of the Zodiac Group in 2007. Zodiac boats were brought into American popular culture in the late 1960s. They were ubiquitous in the popular television documentary series, ''

The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau ''The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau'' is an American documentary television series about underwater marine life, directed by Alan Landsburg and hosted by French filmmaker, researcher, and marine explorer Jacques Cousteau. The first episod ...

.'' The word "ZODIAC" is a registered trademark for

rigid-hulled inflatable boat A rigid inflatable boat (RIB), also rigid-hull inflatable boat or rigid-hulled inflatable boat (RHIB), is a lightweight but high-performance and high-capacity boat constructed with a rigid hull bottom joined to side-forming air tubes that are ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zodiac Nautic French boat builders Inflatable boat manufacturers The Carlyle Group