Albee Rolligon, 1958

On a fishing trip to Alaska in 1950, Mr. William Albee of California observed a group of Eskimo preparing to remove a heavy wooden boat fro the artic waters. Albee wondered how the small, heavily clad men would manage the boat up the muddy bank. The Eskimos produced and inflated several air tight seal skins on which they rolled the boat out of the water and up the bank. Thus was born the concept of the Rolligon low pressure Air Bag tires. With this idea in mind, Mr. Albee returned to California and began developing the first low pressure off road tire.

Bill Albee was the driver of the above vehicle, running over his father as a demonstration of the effectiveness of low pressure combined with a very flexible bag/tire. This vehicle was designed and built in just 9 weeks at the request of the Army Transportation Corp. in 1953. Dad was not able to organize Albee Rolligon Co. until 1955 due a law suit over preliminary financing. Once that was settled, he was able to obtain financing, and designed and built several greatly improved vehicles that generated tremendous world-wide interest and publicity.