"Beer, fish, churchkhela, baklava!"
The cheering cry of the porters on the beaches of southern Russia
Caterpillar sand-walk truck. Since people came up with such a device as a caterpillar, their lives have changed a lot. Although it is difficult to say how many percent is good, and how much worse. The roads, to which wheeled "motors" were so attached at the beginning of the twentieth century, cars on caterpillars are no longer needed. Even the first tanks, for all their awkwardness, easily overcame the "lunar landscape" of the fields of the First World War and even specially dug trap trenches. All-terrain vehicles on caterpillars perfectly moved on sand and snow, paved roads through the Siberian taiga and African jungle, in a word … they worked hard.
The magazine "Science and Mechanics" in the scale of the proposed tracked vehicle, probably surpassed all other publications!
That is, there were people who only thought of how to put an airplane, a ship and a submarine on the tracks, or even "stick them" somewhere else, sometimes in the most amazing place. And I must say that sometimes it turned out, although in most cases all these projects remained so curious, however … However, we, as usual, will tell about the most interesting at the end. In the meantime, I would like to draw the attention of VO readers to the covers of the American magazines Popular Science and Popular Mechanics that we have already used, which have become a vivid evidence of the ability of the press to tell people that … “why not”. And no matter how absurd they were to replicate, their main benefit was that they developed fantasy in people. And where they then sent her - the tenth thing. The main thing is that it is better to have it, that is, fantasy, than not to have it, or to have it as much as a cow!
A design quite seriously proposed by one American inventor in the mid-30s. Before us is a wheeled-tracked transporter for the development of hard-to-reach regions of Canada and Alaska. Huge wheels plus tracks would provide him with excellent passes, although it is not entirely clear why they were combined?
But what if we have islands with a sandy coast, on which it makes no sense to build harbors for ordinary ships, but people need to be transferred? What if we put the ship on … caterpillars and let it float at the expense of the displacement hull, and the caterpillars with strokes rewind and drive it forward. And then it comes to the unequipped shore without any problems! And what do you think, analogues of this vessel entered service with the American army during the Second World War and were widely used in amphibious operations in the Pacific Ocean. The machines of the LVT family are still used today in the armies of the most different countries of the world, lying by the sea.
A monstrous LVT-P7 of the South Korean Marine Corps on display in Ganzan Bay.
And here is a drawing from the Japanese magazine Shōnen Club (1936) under the title "World Transport Invention Competition." Here, however, the idea is slightly different: the tracks rewind so quickly that they replace the propeller for these boats. But it is still clear where the ears grow from this idea!
How did Popular Mechanics differ from Popular Science? Two things: first of all, there was a lot more red on its cover (the classic principle "fools love red!"), So it was simply impossible not to notice it at the newsstand. And secondly, there were even more "crazy ideas" in him, and no one was ashamed of this. And here is one of them: a warship of a class no lower than a cruiser equipped with tracks and hydrofoils. The former allow him to go ashore, and the latter allow him to cross the sea at high speed.
The Popular Science project is purely peaceful. Here, an underwater vehicle for tourists is put on the tracks to roll them under water and show them the beauty of the underwater kingdom.
And this is an underwater tracked bathysphere for deep sea exploration!
And again the topic is intercepted by "Mechanics". Before us is an armored tracked motorcycle with a machine gun on its arm. A sort of "war horse" for all occasions. It is clear that an ordinary wheeled motorcycle will not go everywhere, while such a monster, in theory, will be able to move in complete off-road conditions.
Moreover, the idea of such a "motorcycle" did not remain on paper. He was embodied in metal and even went. It was then very difficult to make him turn. But one of the advantages of a motorcycle is precisely its maneuverability. As a result, the car “didn’t work”, leaving us the cover and the photo as a souvenir!
Tracked motorcycle with machine gun sidecar!
And what, the next innovator decided if we put the track in the back and the steering wheel in the front? Then the cross-country ability of such a tracked vehicle will increase significantly and its control will not be too different from the most ordinary motorcycle.
Yes, but in this case the main advantage of such a motorcycle would be lost. But what if you put the caterpillar all the same forward, but make it pivot? Or put two tracks - front and back. As a result of such reasoning, such machines appeared. They were tested, but … they still did not turn out to be better than ordinary motorcycles. They turned out to be very specific …
At one time, it became fashionable (again, the mid-30s, "the era of unbridled dreams") to consider a screw propeller as a replacement for caterpillars. But … it was clear to everyone that a combat vehicle equipped with it would not be able to take either the escarpment or cross the anti-tank ditch. To fight in the swamps - please, there such a swamp-going vehicle could become irreplaceable. But moving on the same asphalt for her would simply mean a disaster - both the destruction of the asphalt and the augers themselves. But in the picture in the Popular Mechanics magazine, the auger combat vehicle (again, bright red!) Looked simply intimidating. In addition, it was supposed to contain a van der Graaff generator, which accumulates charges of electricity. With his help, pouring water on the enemy and using it as a conductor of electric current, it was just planned to incinerate the target with lightning strikes.
But there appeared in the magazine Popular Mechanics and quite a reasonable project of a small tracked all-terrain vehicle that would drive over the sand and scan it with magnetometers located in front and behind the car. It is known that there is so much in the coastal sand - there you can find gold rings and chains lost by scattered bathers and bathers, and even gold coins from sunken pirate ships and Spanish galleons of the Golden Fleet. There is even such a profession - to look for gold lost over the summer on the beach, and there are experienced search engines who specifically buy beach plots and go out to catch their luck after storms. But … how many do you find like this, on your own two feet. And then, through the sand, you can't see anything. And then you go to yourself along the edge of the surf, and "it" squeaks. He took a shovel, dug, and there was a Roman gold solidus or a Spanish doubloon. And then you will be happy!
Sometimes very funny projects of tracked vehicles were born. For example, at the end of the 20s of the last century in the USSR, a project was proposed for a tracked chassis without a crew, which was supposed to serve as a platform for placing a 45-mm gun."Driver" - if you can call the driver of this "iron horse" should have walked behind her, since her speed was low, and to drive … the most real reins! Pulled one - turn to the left, pulled another - to the right. But nothing came of this project either.
But time has passed and the idea of such a tracked platform, with a remote control, was implemented in practice, and where would you think? In Italy! And you can meet her on the beach in Rimini! Probably, everyone who rested in our South remembered the beach vendors with big bags plying from one end of the beach to the other with loud cries: "Beer, fish, churchekha, baklava!" Someone offers seafood of dubious freshness, someone - ice cream. But how much can you carry on yourself? I remember that in 1968, when I first found myself abroad in Bulgaria, in Golden Sands, I was amazed that boys were completely legally engaged in such a business there. “Ice cream, who gets ice cream? Leningradsk ice cream! " - they shouted, passing by the umbrellas of the Soviet tour groups, and then switched to English, French, German …
The Italians, however, quite rightly realized that you can't be on the sand like that much and, in addition, you can't carry a lot on yourself. And made a crawler-type mobile point of sale with remote control by wire. The owner goes behind, and the "shop" goes in front of him and when necessary he stops it and dresses everyone with Coca-Cola, ice cream, coffee and hamburgers. All this is immediately cooled and heated by him, so that the level of service is the highest possible!
Yes, they find old ideas for themselves, find … And look how brightly colored it is, you don't want to, but you will approach, just out of idle curiosity!
