Weirdest American Tanks Ever Designed
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- Опубликовано: 5 авг 2024
- Today, we're looking at some of the strangest tank designs and concepts to ever hit pen and paper. Some of these even went to the patent office, bafflingly enough, so their brilliant designs couldn't be stolen and profited off of.
We'll be looking at six tanks split into a top five list. Surprise top five list! How exciting.
WALLACE: "So as you can see, in the presence of danger, the Leaping Tank rises from its foundations and leaps down the street and around the corner for safety."
*model tank leaps two feet, crashes and burns. Little wooden soldiers spill out of the model aflame.*
WALLACE: "Huh. Well, the real soldiers wont... um... won't burn quite so fast..."
Ok, thanks for that presentation professor Frink
Shades of the Architects’ Sketch.
@@Assassinus2 "Sir, we're looking for a tank, and not a... whatever this is."
"Well, that's just the sort of blinkered philistine pig-ignorance I've come to expect from you non-creative garbage!"
@@Assassinus2 My thoughts exactly! I was just waiting for John Cleese to poke his head into the demonstration and mutter "It opens doors, I tell you!"
When you listed the gyro tank as _least_ weird I thought "How can it get wierder than that?" Now I know.
@@creamwobbly that damn jumping pillbox got me dying
Wallace's design is easily the most wonderfully horrendous "tank" design I've ever seen, and I need someone to actually make one
That Gyro Tank does sound fun.
The skeleton tanks woud be more practical than anything that was on the battle field during world war one.
wish "world of tanks" was about those wacky never made tanks fighting and not all of that "pay to win" genZ stupidity
@@Kiyoone I don''t really know your point... Is it that the Z attitude sucks because or.... ??
@@creamwobbly theyre russian i think, but uh hey atleast its not war thunder with actual pay to win bush camoflages and premium account necessity for progression
Thing that gets me about the Skeleton Tank is that the designers removed all the unnecessary bits of the tank to save weight... and then still kept the tracks going up high over the now non existing side sponsons.
If they had just put the front and rear idler/drive wheels in the same position, drawn a tangent between them and removed anything about that line the entire tank could have been much lower and, dare I say it, state of the art 1920s.
It might be more fun to fill-in the open sections with paper-mache, to make it LOOK like a normal tank. The enemy would shoot at it and wonder why it’s still going, even though they can see gaping holes in its “armor”.
I mean... toss one grenade in there....
The inventor of that thing was, as many, convinced the all-over track was the best way to bridge trenches and get through big craters. After all - the most successful tank of the great war was the Vickers.
Therefore, making it a lot lighter by reducing the armored part to the essential bit plus making it pivot to reduce motion sickness and precision of firing whilst on the move was quite forward thinking.
The whole idea of high-mobility tank warfare caught on a lot later. Agreed, the Renault FT was, from our point of view, the most advanced tank of the time - albeit slow. But back then, the principles of how-to make a tank weren't fully discovered.
The main reason why tanks during WWI were so sluggish was the lack of engine power. Even the best engines had hardly more than 100hp and it would take decades before that problem would be solved.
For 1918, the skeleton tank was quite forward thinking indeed.
Im pretty sure they were worried the tank wouldnt turn it self over if it went belly up xD
I seen some other tanks, that was actually put into production with a rather "see through" approach to the design.
I think it should be noted that the editor of Electrical Experimenter, Hugo Gernsback was not only a prolific writer of sci-fi, he is considered one of THE pioneers of modern Sci-fi and that the Hugo Award for Speculative Fiction is named after him
That. He's still known as the Father of Science Fiction for a reason. The vid makes him sound like he's just some random nobody who edited an old-timey speculative science magazine, which a bit like calling George Washington a modestly successful officer in the British army.
And a coconut!😂😂😂❤❤❤😂😂😂
#2 one need 600 of them. And a right and a left end.
Thank you; I was going to say something similar. Surprises me that it took six months to have it mentioned in the comments.
For reference: the armament of the Yamato-class battleship was 9 18-inch guns. The Gyro Cruiser would have 12 17-inch guns. I just imagine it trying to fire a broadside and tipping over like a bicycle over from the force of firing all those guns at the same time.
I was thinking the exact same thing... in order to stay upright, you'd have to counteract by firing from the opposite side. Or, imagining a "kick stand" crew having to run outside and deploy a kick stand to prop it up before they fire 😂
18.1" guns
Solution: fire some temporary rockets
Brilliant! The comparison to the dog with the itchy but made me laugh out loud! Thanks for sharing this!
While the gyro cruiser is weird, I remember an old Justice League episode where the League goes to an alternate Earth and the Axis powers had gyro tanks, much like in the picture. And, as someone noted, Hugo Gernsback was a prolific sci-fi writer, so he probably just let his imagination run wild.
I remember that too. The 1993 anime series V Gundam also featured giant motorcycles
Skeleton tank looks like something you make in Crossout when you are trying to use a few high-tier parts and save on points everywhere else.
The Wallace was intended to jump over enemy fortresses, and then make a two fronts attack, but my bet is things like it made prohibition seem like a good idea...
Should expand on the honorable mentions
Re#1, there actually were gyroscopically stabilised vehicles, e.g. the Wolsely gyrocar of 1913 and the Brennan gyro-monorail of circa 1907. The concept is mentioned in H.G.Wells's 1908 novel The War in the Air.
💥 Look, all I know is that Ukraine would've already won the war, if only we'd spent all that weapons money on building 100 Lyons Electric Gyro Cruisers, and sent them to Ukraine to storm over the front lines into Russian territory!
Keep in mind, the Russians wouldn't be able to attack the Gyro Cruisers, because any attack would risk spilling all the mercury out of the wheels, which would obviously permanently poison their countryside! It's a foolproof plan, so why didn't they do it?
There was also an American gyrocar built in the 60s, and today it resides at the Lane Motor Museum. It still runs too!
This channel is highly underrated, great video!
Lyons Electro Gyro Cruiser would make excellent target practice for the enemy artillery of the time with its huge flat profile. I don't know what kind of armor it has but since it would have a difficult time hiding anywhere it is only fair to assume artillery would be pounding it like a pinata once it enters their firing range.
Shumans Superdreadnought looks like something Dr. Loveless from the Wild Wild West feature film would enjoy.
Wallace Leaping tank is the kind of tank you wish your enemy has, When it moves It has greater chances of harming its occupants that the enemy outside it, defying the whole concept.
A great video! Interesting and surprising content, with great pictures and production.
I do hope Henry Wallace had other ideas to feed his family, because the pogo tank was ludicrous. Made me choke on my Mai Tai. Aloha!
I'm very impressed with this video. I consider myself a bit of a weird military vehicle buff, but I hadn't heard of five of these six vehicles!
My thoughts on each vehicle:
Lyons Electric Gyrocruiser: Well, I guess at least it would work as a chemical weapon, when enemy fire blew open the giant mercury-filled wheels...
Shuman Superdreadnought: A giant tricycle/steamroller that destroys enemy targets by driving over them and hitting them with dangling chains? Are we sure this wasn't designed by Warhammer 40k Orks?
Skeleton tank: I can see so many transmission and power transfer problems with this thing. But like you said, I can see what they were going for.
Wrona tank: So... It's basically a near-copy of the WW1 French Char d'assault Chamond, only with an extra gun and even more limited weapon traverse?
Infantry Fort: I'm pretty sure I saw this once competing in Battlebots...
Wallace Leaping Tank: All I can say is WTF. Although I guess we now know where Hasbro got the idea for the "Cobra Pogo Ballistic Battle Ball" GI Joe toy...
I like your pfp. It fits so well with your username.
Gyrocruiser might make a good chemical weapon... if it could make it to the battlefield. For it to do that it would have to be way smaller, it is easily the most ridiculous tank on this list and only gets a pass for being published in a science fiction magazine where it wasn't being seriously proposed.
Also the Wrorna is nothing like the Chamond. It is cyndrical like a Wennibago, the Chamond is a box like an oil rig. Completely different.
In all seriousness I was thinking that too, it actually has more in common with an actual tank that saw action than the Skeleton Tank. I'd honestly say of all the tanks presented here it might be the most reasonable. Just need to make some modifications (single fixed forward facing canon like the stug, maybe a shorter profile, lengthen the treads)
I’m glad I’m not the only one who looked at the Wrona and thought, “Somebody learned almost all the wrong lessons from the St. Chamond.”
The only explanation I can think of for the Wallace Tank is as some bizarre attempt at misinformation to befuddle German spies.
Impractical is putting it mildly... Ha ha, loved the itchy butt reference - Great Video!
The gyro cruiser deserves to be some sort of roaming boss in an open world game, or maybe a set piece in a ghibli film
Leaping Tank + AI these days ... shrink it to a small armoured box, make it a mansized heavyarmoured "loitering ground nuisance" forcing the enemy to fire AT-weapons or similar to take it out... weird idea but just the "WTF"-Face of the Enemy when encountering this for the first time would be worth a prototype
A bouncing betty will give you more bang for your buck if you want to go that way.
'The Three Stooges in Orbit' featured something uncannily similar to "the combination vehicle". It was a silly movie, but fun for a Sunday afternoon.
I'd LOVE to see a war movie with all the ridiculous weaponry. Like Iron Sky.
I saw a tank design from ww1 that was an open topped tub that tunnelled through the ground with the top of the tub level with the ground, essentially being a moving section of trench. It was also able to launch "enfilading machines", wheels that either had guns sticking out of the sides or just exploded after a set amount of time. The enfilading machines were just a single relatively narrow wheel that the tank would spin up and drop, letting them roll towards and into an enemy trench. The only issue was that there was nothing to keep them going in a straight line or prevent them falling over on the rough ground.
Great video as always :)
You just earned a new subscriber.
Informative and funny.
Thank you.
The artwork for that tricycle tank is excellent. I really liked how that was drawn. It was like I was right there, watching a metropolis drag is hairy balls across the face of some "minutes from down-town, highway adjacent suburb" to everyone's extreme satisfaction.
Wallace Tank looks like it would be parachuted into position by a big aircraft or flying saucer, which were popular back then. The structure shows what appears to be lightened girders, and if not drawn for lack of any practical knowledge of armor, those could be evidence of intent to air-transport. Giant leg is drawn with telescoping proportions, so could be a collapsing shock absorber. With guns all around, as long as it lands leg-side-down, it is facing the enemy, and can defend its flanks until other forces catch up to it. When thought of as a "Place a strongpoint wherever you need one on any battlefield" type of thing, it makes a lot of [marketing] sense. Later videogamers would call this highly effective anti-AI technique "turret creeping". Simply drop a turret where your front line can defend it, then drop your next one where the previous turret can defend it, move up your front line, and Bob's your uncle, it would seem.
And I thought the russians then were crack pots with so.e of their ideas, I'm embarrassed.
The Infantry Fort demonstrates a very basic misunderstanding of what made trench warfare what it was. The problem wasn’t that soldiers couldn’t get to enemy trenches and take them, the problem was that they couldn’t get the necessary heavy support and communications equipment forward in order to _keep_ the trench and advance the line. This is what tanks like the Saint Chamond were created to try and remedy: by creating mobile artillery that could advance with the infantry. (The Saint Chamond wasn’t exactly mobile enough, though)
When he started describing a tank for trench warfare I started thinking about a tank with machine guns or flame throwers that could aim down the trenches when the tank got to them. This was... unexpected. (Also, if you wanted to protect infantry advances, I can think of so many way more practical ways- short of modern APCs, to extend a bit of armor off the side of tanks... like fold out panels that maybe pop out 60 degrees from the side with some wheels and a hinge where they meet the tank so that they can bend up and down as needed for the terrain.)
Maybe Wallace’s design was meant to kill the enemy with laughter and with its terrible visibility for surrounding friendly troops, being around it would’ve been just as dangerous, never mind if one fell over.
Really interesting vid, never knew about these at all. Very weird designs lol.
the skeleton tank does not fulfill the purpose of giving shelter to following infantry like early tanks did
Well, not much, but it might be better than none.
I'd love to trade my Bandit 1200 for that electro cruiser...now that's a motorcycle!
Can't afford a GSXR?
@@mikeholland1031 Can't afford the insurance GSXR is considered a sport bike. Double what I pay for the Bandit.
@@chrissinclair8705 I figured that. Just ribbing you.
Those first two are goddamn masterpieces of post-Wells gigantism. Love them!
Looking at the Infantry Fort there is a tracked platform in use with some law enforcement agencies called the Rook. It's a tracked bobcat loader with the bucket replaced by an armored platform that can be elevated in order to allow officers to access rooftops. It also has a breaching device out front for kicking doors and barricades in.
Also, in regards to the Wallace Leaping Tank, Cobra had this pogo platform that had four legs and hydraulics. That, even though it was a toy, was more feasible as a weapons platform.
I got a feeling that is the same Wallace that went to the moon with his dog for a picnic
Do not forget who came up with the idea of the tank, Leonardo da Vinci. Wow what an inventor.
That Wallace Design could have been used as a portable Defense/Scout Turret.
Dig it in, and when enemy is near, push it up!
I imagine, only a heavy mortar can damage that thing on top.
It is not really a vehicle, so possibly, to be dropped, maybe even by parachutes.
Like a Portable Pillbox.
Thx for the nice Video!
I would love to see that Wallace tank stomping on a Pz IV like it's a goomba
Agreed, just got the mental image of it doing that and it's gonna live in my head rent free now
I'm impressed that Wallace came up with a design sillier than the DC Comics War Wheel.
Totally agree with your assessment of the pogo stick of doom.
The Wallace Leaping Tank was obviously inspired those 1930's film serials like Buck Rogers.
imagine a tank jumping over the battlefield coming to you at 30mph, that would be terrifying
I kinda like the butt-scoot Wallace tank idea, not exactly a high speed assault vehicle but if you're mired in trench warfare a neigh impregnable steel pillbox that inexorably scoots forward a few meters every day is still a better way to advance the line than sending wave after wave of men charging into machine-gun fire.
Very weird designs! Thank you.
The skeleton tank made me imagine a tank with a rifle-calibre-proof outer skin and an internal armoured citadel. Could have been genuinely confusing & terrifying in the early days of tank combat to see this zombie tank getting ripped apart by shrapnel etc but still going, but as soon as the enemy captured one the mystery would be over
You missed the iron globe on PSM, my fave. But I hadn't seen the leaping tank before. Wallace was doing so much hand waving it must have injured his wrists.
Imagine trying to design a tank and just be like "hmmm.. P o g o s t i c k"
I bet some of the early ones were really weird, lyons electric cruiser is something outa cartoons lol.
14:11 Cobra thought it was a good idea 😂
The only thing missing is all the gerbils running inside small wheels powering these beasts.
Having said that, super cool designs for some artsy games or other art ^^
Thanks for a good video!
Edit: Like your humor, keep it up =)
My first thought when I saw those first two tanks was "that looks like something from one of Hugo Gernsback's magazines". 😅
Great content homie. Ty!
Thats weird how they made trenches just stuck into the ground like that, didnt they ever think they'd need to move them. Also the pogo stick tank would have been a great name for that last one. Real george jetson ish.
While half of these were designed/never saw combat im actually planning on having these make an appearance in a manga that im doing to give it more of that Deiselpunk kinda vibe along with some of the well established ones like the mark IV plus i think these are all really intresting aswell as unique 😄
Hugo Gernsbach is considered the father and godfather of modern science, as an author and editor of several of the seminal "pulp" magazines that started the genre as we know it nowadays. He is also considered the ideological father of hard science fiction.
I genuinely laughed out loud at the AMERICA FIRST tank in the end.
Wallace's Leaping Tank, sounds like an amazing Wallace and Gromit Movie.
Interesting enough, the Wallace Leaping Tank design kinda survived and become a thing, more or less. The Walking draglines, or crawler draglines use a "walking leaping" system that allows them to move. Something like the Wallace tank woudl do with it's arm retracted.
Wow! I saw the thumbnail of the Gyrocruiser and what I saw was a one man armored motorcycle!
"What if we took a lawnmower and made it the size of an aircraft carrier?"
Good video. I've always been a tank buff, but lost interest over the years. In terms of this video, the skeleton tank is the only one I knew of.
Wallace didn't have Gromitt to advise him on the design that day. lol
Wallace Leaping tank is... Well I can see that. But not with MG's but cannons and used as a long range engaging fortification that is camuflaged, and when enemy engages it - it can go up and down, preventing aimed shots from tanks. Or even changes it's angle to make any shell bounce if hit. I wondered about something like an extented "arm" with a ERA that changed directions when incoming shell/rocket is going (connected to a system that simply react to any heat signature or maybe a flash/movement and moves the "shield" in front of it), something like a "cope cage" that is really working.
That Hugo Gernsbeck, what a crazy guy! Jet planes...rocket ships...atomic power, sheesh what a nut......p.s.
As for the Wallace design it is Apparent from the last drawing that it was dependent on at least three possibly four methods of gyroscopic control. It's easy to Envision and air-cooled rotary engine placed horizontally driving the three different gyroscopes and the hydraulic system for the leaping action.
If that isn't the coolest logo I have ever seen, I don't know what is. 😂
Some far out shit. Still captivating stuff though . Good work.💛
The Gyro Cruiser, the most ultimate bike ever: lane splitting a problem? SPLIT THE WHOLE HIGHWAY, YOUR WAY!
Leaping tank should have been in a Mel brooks movie. The one where they are running out of "air" so are forced to buy perri-air from the neighbouring planet maybe? 🤔
I clicked because I thought that "gyro" was some kind of reasonable sized armored motorcycle, and I'm leaving with a massive feeling of "WTF!?" 😅
Please - somebody add these into some tank-battle game? Especially that last one.
Patito. Patito. Patito. Para ti todo mi rey.
(:
Un abrazo.
Wallace’ design could somehow be made possible in a modern 3D animated kids movie.
Wallace was definitely not sober when he was making his design
And thus the result was a violent pogo stick
WHAT??!!! You didn't do any info on those last four tanks??!! The Alligator tank! The Combo tank! The America First Tank!
Number 1 makes me think of a treehouse. It could even move like a tree house…. Extend the turret up as a raised armored shooting platform and when you wanted to move it tilt it in the direction and just let it fall. “Timber!!” Like a tree being felled with its treehouse and occupants along for the ride. Then retract the leg and let it settle in place to then start over again… well after you scrape the crew out and replace them!
Maybe the last one was just a way to elevate a pillbox to get better line of sight? An anchored platform that could telescope up might, in some very specific situations... no, it would still be stupid, but not as stupid. There were pop up coastal defense guns. Maybe the idea is it could have raised up to deal with waves of enemies, but lowered itself behind a hill when enemy batteries where hitting the area?
The UK was literally working on a leaping truck that could jump over buildings. It was a serious project.
.. great jumping Wallace tanks batman!
... a Wallace and Grommet animation tank?😊
8:46 Dude should have given the designs to New Zealand. Bob Semple would be SHOOKT.
Thank you for teaching me the name Hugo Gernsback I finally got a reference from a TTRPG I am playing.
He's also the namesake of the Hugo Awards for Speculative Fiction and there was a ship named after him in Mass Effect
Now I just want to make an AU where these tanks were actually used.
The Wallace Pogo tank .... sounds like something from Wallace and Gromit 😂😂😂
1:43 I personally don’t count large-wheel landships as tanks. In my mind, the word “tank” only applies to vehicles with treads.
A pogo tank! :D
6:13 My man took a look at the Saint Chamond and thought it would be a good idea in 1940. Because clearly, the Saint Chamond was the superior tank to the Renault FT Just look at them: The Saint Chamond is _way_ bigger. That means it’s better, right?
Always "pay attn" to either "Popular" magazine.
I recall reading in the 70's about Scram and Ram jets with Stealth and inside out batteries that charge and make hydrogen for a fuel cell use.
Wallace literally weaponised pogo sticks 😂
You should make a another video or two of weirdest German tank designs. and weirdest Russian/ussr tank designs.
The first one looks like something out of howl moving castle
Ironically many years later...the Gryotank would appear in popular media in the Gundam series as the Adrastea class...part battleship part motorcycle, all rediculous!
'Certainly more practical than today's neocons.... and Much more entertaining.
The skeleton tank is all flat surfaces, so it would take far less penetration to pierce it with the same armor thickness, since there isn't any deflecting angles, and it would be far less structural when it comes to driving over uneven terrain...
Shuman’s Superdreadnought looks like the experimental Tsar Tank the Russia built in WW1.
And the Wrona tank has similarities Germanise A7V from ww1.
Ah, tanks for the memories.
A never thought a giant armored motorcycle would be considered as a tank 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Whatever Wallace was smoking when he made that pogo stick tank I’ve got to get some.
My thoughts on each one:
Gyro Cruiser: I don’t care how much toxic liquid you put inside that wheel it’s not gonna stay upright, it’s gonna fall over and kill hundreds of people when it crushes the entire infantry support column that has to follow it everywhere it goes.
Super Dreadnaught: OK I guess I can see the concept behind it it’s just gonna crush everything with the giant wheels and really heavy chains. Not very practical and definitely way too big, but, I can see the idea behind it.
Skeleton tank: Actually looks pretty good but I can imagine there be so many transmission problems with the power transfer being outside the main body of the vehicle. Also why did they keep the high tracks they could’ve squished them down to put each drive wheel on the same level and made it a much more practical design.
Wrona tank: why. It has a 1° firing arc with its main cannons and it can’t even go up and down. Basically, completely pointless unless the enemy sits directly in front of the barrel and of course it would get itself high centered on every rock in Europe.
Infantry Fort: Wait wasn’t that thing on BattleBots one time?
Wallace's Leaping Tank: WTF even is that. It’s way too complicated, basically impossible, and unable to be feasible even with modern technology. Is so lacking in fire power that it would be completely worthless on the battlefield. I mean, six machine guns? That would do absolutely nothing to anything but exposed infantry.
that was fun
Welp, now we know where Hasbro got the idea for the Cobra Pogo "ballistic battle ball" in GI Joe. Apparently, some R&D was done between 1942 and 1987; the Pogo seems more reliable. 😆
I can only ask, "You havin' a laugh, mate?"
The Alligator tank with a few refinements could make a good APC.
#3 the Wrona tank looks like the French Schneider tank from WW1.
I would love to commute in the Super Dreadnought.