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there is no such thing as a stupid Q, we all had to learn some time or another ...... I think what you are thinking of is a life raft, it is the only inflatable raft typa thing that inflates by pulling a string ..... no inflatable boat with a motor works like that as it is a once off thing, kinda like an airbag, it only works once ....
Unless you rig a scuba tank to your inflation valves.... it takes fabrication of an adapter hose to fit onto an octopus rig. There are a lot of different size inflation tubes for different makes of boats. Check a scuba shop, they should be able to help and might even have some old parts available.
The instructions that came with my inflatable specifically cautioned against using compressed air to inflate the tubes. It indicated it could damage the seams between the compartments. The recommended way to inflate is to partially inflate all of the compartments and then go back for full inflation.
This helps to prevent stress on internal seams.
There should be no problems if you want to use an electric inflator. Just avoid compressed air as you cannot always control the flow when the tubes are near full.
all these war movies show the seals departing from the sub and pulling the magic string that inflates the raft as they swim to the surface. the bulletproof boat in chuck norris's movie i know is hollywood magic, but weould be kinda cool to have. i know not to believe hollywood, but thought the special forces had a way to inflate boats fast.
I can't speak to the special forces rafts directly, but if they're anything like our rafts and life vests, they use a CO2 cartridge. Sort of a precalculated amount of compressed air, I suppose.
Zodiac offers some model boats that use a compressed air system, however, they have special valves that prevent over inflation. They are also 5 times the cost of a standard boats in their sizes.
