Snow cruiser
The Snow Cruiser is a large wheeled vehicle for snow-covered ground that was built in 1939 to explore Antarctica . The Snow Cruiser should not only function as a means of transport, but also as a mobile research station with living and working areas for its crew in the vehicle itself. An aircraft was attached to the roof of the Snow Cruiser, which should be started from there if necessary. The project was led by Thomas C. Poulter and Admiral Richard Evelyn Byrd and failed because the Snow Cruiser was not able to overcome even the smallest elevations in practical use. It was simply not possible to simulate the weather conditions of the Antarctic in the USA . The snow cruiser was abandoned.
History of origin
An Antarctic expedition that nearly killed Admiral Byrd but was saved by Poulter is considered to be the birth of the Snow Cruiser. This is where Poulter first came up with the idea of building such a vehicle. Back in the USA, he then put this project into practice.
Construction of the Snow Cruiser began in August 1939 in Chicago , Illinois . You had eleven weeks to build a finished vehicle according to the plans. When completed, it was taken to Boston , Massachusetts , tested, and loaded onto the North Star for transport to Antarctica .
On January 12, 1940, the ship reached the Bay of Whales and thus the Antarctic continent. Here the huge vehicle was loaded from the ship using a specially constructed ramp. However, the ramp collapsed under the weight of the vehicle. Nevertheless, it was finally possible to bring the vehicle ashore.
One of the requirements placed on the vehicle was that it should cross crevasses up to five meters wide. However, the Snow Cruiser did not meet the requirements, sank in the snow and had problems getting there even on the smallest inclines. Even after a few changes to the vehicle, no improvements in performance could be achieved. The project was then abandoned and the Snow Cruiser was left behind in the Antarctic.
Comparable developments
With the Kharkovchanka , Soviet Antarctic research has been using a vehicle similar to the Snow Cruiser since the 1950s in that it was also a vehicle suitable for long-distance transport in the Antarctic, in which living and working spaces were integrated into the vehicle. In contrast to the Snow Cruiser, the Kharkovchanka was a significantly smaller tracked vehicle that had been developed on the basis of a tried and tested series vehicle.
Technical specifications
| Machinery: | Two 6-cylinder Cummins diesel engines |
| Drive motors: | Four General Electrics with 75 hp each |
| Top speed: | approx. 50 km / h |
| Length: | 15.4 m |
| Height: | 4.4 m |
| Width: | 5.25 m |
| Weight (fully loaded): | 34 t |
| Range: | approx. 8000 km |
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Alan Taylor: The Antarctic Snow Cruiser — Updated . In: The Atlantic . ( theatlantic.com [accessed December 4, 2018]).
- ^ The Antarctic Snow Cruiser . In: Nature . tape 145 , no. 3681 , May 1940, ISSN 0028-0836 , p. 772-773 , doi : 10.1038 / 145772c0 ( nature.com [accessed December 4, 2018]).
literature
The bestselling author Clive Cussler gives this vehicle a decisive role in his novel Atlantis Found (In Germany, "Atlantis Files").
- Edwin P. Hoyt: The Last Explorer - The Adventures of Admiral Byrd . John Day Co., New York NY 1968.
- Schreiber, Alexander. The Snow Cruiser; The Story of Its Conception and Construction and the Part It Will Play in the Expedition of the United States Antarctic Service, by Alexander Schreiber . [Chicago]: [Armor Institute of technology], 1939.
- Scambos, Ted, and Clarence Novak. 2005. "On the Current Location of the Byrd" Snow Cruiser "and Other Artifacts from Little America I, II, III and Framheim". Polar Geography. 29, no. 4: 237.