1939 Hacker-Craft

Based on the streamlined designs of John Hacker, Thunderbird is a 55-foot commuter boat featuring a distinctive stainless-steel cabin top that was built for millionaire George Whittell, who was fascinated with the latest aircraft, automobile and boat technology. Enamored with the lines of his personal DC-2 airplane, Whittell requested Thunderbird's hull and cockpit be built to resemble the fuselage of his twin-engine aircraft. Built in 1939 by the Huskins Boat Co. of Bay City, MI, Thunderbird's original twin 550-horsepower Kermath engines were replaced in the 1960s with twin 1000-horsepower Allison V-12 aircraft engines. The Hacker-Craft is owned by Foundation 36, a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving and protecting Nevada's natural, cultural and historic treasures, and is berthed in Whittell's original 1940 boathouse built for Thunderbird. The boathouse is connected to the main house by a 600-foot tunnel that was blasted through granite at the Thunderbird Lodge Historic Site on Lake Tahoe.