The first half of the 20th century was the time of the dreamers. At this time, people dreamed of the North and South Poles, believed in communism, and ran around with completely insane projects. The construction of one-hundred-story buildings, a ship for 2,500 passengers, tanks weighing 1,500 tons, an aircraft carrier and the development of spaceships - all these people dreamed of. The specificity of the time was such that dreamers easily found themselves among representatives of big business and government. As a result, some of them sought funding from others and implemented their projects. This is how the Empire State Building, the Titanic, the Ilya Muromets aircraft, the Tsar Tank and other projects that boggled the imagination were born.
In this story of dreamers, the name of the Snow Cruiser all-terrain vehicle, which was designed and built by the American Thomas Poulter, has also been preserved. In 1934, Thomas took part in the Antarctic expedition, which could have cost its leader, Admiral Byrd, the life. Then Thomas Poulter only on the third attempt was able to make his way to the admiral locked by a blizzard on tracked tractors and save him. It was then that he caught fire with the idea of creating a specialized transport for Antarctica. In the 1930s, Poulter served as research director for the Illinois Institute of Technology Research Foundation in Chicago. In this position, he was able to convince the director of this fund of the feasibility of his new project. As a result, for two years the team of the organization worked on the creation of the Antarctic snow cruiser, as Thomas Poulter himself called it.
If we do not take into account the low air temperature, complex snow-ice cover and lack of oxygen, the main danger during travels in Antarctica was cracks in the ice cover of the continent, which very often turned out to be invisible under a layer of firn or snow and for this reason were especially terrible for researchers. Poulter undertook to solve this problem with a "cavalry swoop": it was enough to design a car so long, and the overhangs so large that its nose overcame the crack by the time the front wheel got into it. The "snow cruiser" was supposed to move on four wheels. It is not known for what reason Thomas Poulter decided to opt for this particular scheme. Most likely, he considered the tracked propulsion system to be redundant and very voracious.
Snow Cruiser layout
The four wheels of the all-terrain vehicle were shifted towards the center of the body - its base was equal to about half the total length of the vehicle. The tires are 120 "in diameter (just over 3 meters) and 33" wide, and were manufactured by Goodyear from 12-ply frost-resistant rubber. In front of the front axle of the all-terrain vehicle, two six-cylinder Cummins diesel engines with a volume of 11 liters and a capacity of 150 hp were installed. each. These diesels powered two electric generators, which powered 4 General Electric 75 hp electric motors. each. The electric motors were each installed in their own hub, while there was more than enough space in the two-meter hubs for them. Thus, the all-terrain vehicle, created in the late 30s of the last century, was a diesel-electric hybrid. At present, mining dump trucks are produced according to this scheme.
The suspension of the all-terrain vehicle was also unusual. She had an adjustable ground clearance. More precisely, the wheels of the car could be drawn into the arches by 1, 2 meters. Thanks to this solution, firstly, it was possible to warm up the rubber and clean it from frozen ice (hot exhaust gases from diesel engines were supplied to the wheel arches), and secondly, in this way the all-terrain vehicle had to overcome cracks in the ice. First, the Snow Cruiser had to reach the opposite edge of the crack with its front overhang, then pull the front wheels into the body, and, "rowing" only with the rear wheels, push the front axle to the shore. After that, the front wheels lowered, and the building, on the contrary, was pulled into the body. Now the front axle had to pull out the all-terrain vehicle. It was envisaged that this procedure could be carried out in 20 steps (all actions would have to be performed manually), and the time for its implementation would be 1.5 hours. Among other things, all four wheels of the all-terrain vehicle were made manageable - you could try to turn around "on a patch" or move sideways.
The car turned out to be quite massive. The body of the all-terrain vehicle had a 17-meter length and a ski-like bottom, the height was from 3, 7 to 5 meters (depending on the clearance), and the width was 6, 06 meters. Through the cracks in the ice, the width of which did not exceed 4.5 meters, with which the Antarctic glacier abounds, the all-terrain vehicle had to literally "crawl", including due to the shape of its bottom, it was also supposed to overcome the firn (granular ice) areas.
Inside the hull of the "Snow Cruiser" there was enough space not only to accommodate a three-man control room (moved up), an engine room, fuel tanks for 9463 liters of diesel fuel, but also for a wardroom with armchairs, a five-bed bedroom, a kitchen with a sink and a stove for 4 burners, a workshop with welding equipment and a special room for developing photographs. In addition, the all-terrain vehicle had its own warehouse of equipment and provisions and two spare wheels, which were placed in a special compartment of the car in the rear overhang.
But that's not all. On the roof of the all-terrain vehicle, a small biplane plane was to be located, which in those years could have played the role of a GPS navigator for the Snow Cruiser. Also on the roof of the all-terrain vehicle, 4 thousand liters of fuel for the aircraft were to be stored. To lower the plane and lift it back on board, as well as to replace the wheels, the all-terrain vehicle had special winches that were extended from its roof.
Way to Antarctica
In 1939, Thomas Poulter presented his Snow Cruiser in the US Congress, so much so that he was even able to "spark" the senators with his idea. Congressmen agreed to fund an expedition to deliver the all-terrain vehicle to Antarctica. And the money for the construction of the "cruiser", almost 150 thousand dollars (a very serious amount at that time), Poulter was able to collect from some private investors. After receiving the approval of the American Congress, the expedition was scheduled for November 15, 1939 - Antarctic spring. At the same time, it was already August 8 in the yard. The unique all-terrain vehicle had to be built and delivered to the ship in just 11 weeks. History is silent about whether Pullman employees left their jobs and how long they slept, but the Snow Cruiser was ready within a month and a half.
On October 24, 1939, the all-terrain vehicle was first started, and on the same day the “cruiser” set off on its own from Chicago to the military port of Boston, where the North Star ship was waiting for dispatch. The dimensions of the all-terrain vehicle really made it possible to call it the "Snow Cruiser"; it towered over the crowds of onlookers around it, like an aircraft carrier in port over other ships. Painted in bright red, in order to be more noticeable in the snowy expanses of Antarctica, he had to travel 1700 km.
The maximum speed of the all-terrain vehicle, which was accompanied by police cars, was 48 km / h, quite worthy for those years. However, in some turns in one step, the all-terrain vehicle simply did not fit, and not all bridges were able to withstand its weight - 34 tons. Therefore, part of the bridges, the car simply drove around the "bottom", simultaneously engaged in forcing small rivers. During one of these tests, the all-terrain vehicle damaged the power steering, for this reason, the car spent 3 days under the bridge while repairs were underway. In general, when driving on the highway, the all-terrain vehicle showed its best side. On the off-road, including loose sand, the car also went pretty confidently.
It is worth noting that they did not try to test the cruiser with serious off-road conditions, since the main task was to get to the port by the appointed time. If Poulter and his brainchild had been late for the loading of the ship, he would have gone sailing without him. But the road to Boston was eventually completed successfully and on November 12, 3 days before the ship's departure, the Snow Cruiser ended up in the Boston military port. To place the giant all-terrain vehicle on the deck of the ship (across the deck), the rear of the car (spare tire cover) was removed. At the same time, Thomas Poluter independently drove onto the deck of the ship along the ladder. On November 15, 1939, as previously planned, the ship sailed to the shores of Antarctica.
Failure of the project
It was at this moment in this whole story that an end could be put, since travels on American roads and the snowy expanses of Antarctica turned out to be incomparable and ended in the failure of the project of the American dreamer Thomas Poulter. On January 11, 1940, the ship landed on the coast of Antarctica in the Bay of Whales. According to the route plan, which was drawn by Thomas Poulter for the US Congress, the "Snow Cruiser" was supposed to cross Antarctica twice in a crisscross pattern, while traveling around almost the entire coastline and visiting the Pole twice. At the same time, the fuel supply should have been enough for 8000 km of track. In order to lower the all-terrain vehicle onto land, a special ramp made of wood was built. During the descent of the vehicle from the ship, one of the wheels broke through the wooden flooring, but Poulter managed to press the gas pedal in time and the Snow Cruiser successfully slid into the snow, avoiding catastrophic consequences.
The real disaster followed almost immediately. It turned out that the Snow Cruiser is not designed for driving on snowy surfaces! The 34-ton all-terrain vehicle on four absolutely smooth wheels immediately sat down on the bottom. The wheels of the car simply plunged into the snow a meter and turned helplessly, unable to move the all-terrain vehicle. In an attempt to somehow improve the situation, the team attached the spare wheels of the all-terrain vehicle to the front ones, thereby increasing their width by 2 times, and also put on the rear wheels of the car in chains. After that, the all-terrain vehicle was able to at least somehow move back and forth. After several vain attempts, Poulter found that when the all-terrain vehicle is reversing, it behaves much more confidently, the "curved" distribution of mass along the axes of the machine affected.
As a result, Thomas Poulter's team set off on a journey across the vastness of Antarctica in reverse. In addition to the fact that the wheels of the all-terrain vehicle without a tread were constantly slipping, other problems were also found out. For example, giant overhangs, which were good for airfield tractors, turned out to be only a hindrance in the conditions of a snowy continent - any more or less noticeable break in the surface of the all-terrain vehicle could not overcome even in the highest position of its suspension, resting against the thickness of the snow with its nose or tail. Among other things, the engines of the "Snow Cruiser", despite the air temperature in tens of degrees below zero, constantly overheated. After 14 days of torment, the American dreamer simply abandoned his brainchild in the snows of Antarctica, saying goodbye to his dream of traveling the entire continent, and left for the United States. By that time, the "Snow Cruiser" managed to overcome only 148 km of snowy desert.
The rest of the all-terrain vehicle crew remained to live in the car as the scientific personnel of the polar station. The Snow Cruiser turned out to be a very mediocre SUV, but a very nice home in Antarctica. The heating system in his cabin was well thought out. Diesel engine exhaust gases and coolant circulated in special channels, providing almost room temperature inside the "cruiser", they also melted snow in a special boiler. The stock of food and fuel in the car was enough for a whole year of battery life. The crew of the all-terrain vehicle covered the car with wooden shields, which finally turned it into a house and began to conduct scientific research - conducting seismological experiments, measuring the radiation background, etc. A few months later, even before the onset of the Antarctic winter, the "Snow Cruiser" was finally abandoned by people.
The next time the polar explorers got inside the car at the end of 1940. Having examined the all-terrain vehicle, they came to the conclusion that it is in an absolutely workable condition - it is only necessary to lubricate the mechanisms and pump up the wheels. However, on the eve of the United States' entry into World War II, the development of Antarctica was no longer a priority.
The next time the car was discovered already in 1958. This was done by an international expedition, which found that over 18 years, the all-terrain vehicle was covered with several meters of snow. The location of the "Snow Cruiser" gave out a tall bamboo pole sticking out above the surface, which had previously been prudently installed by its crew. By measuring the height of the snow from the wheels themselves, the polar explorers were able to understand how much precipitation fell over a given period of time. Since then, this all-terrain vehicle has never been seen again. According to one of the versions, it was completely covered with snow. According to another version, he ended up in one of the giant icebergs that annually float from the ice shelf of Antarctica, after which they drown somewhere in the waters of the World Ocean located to the north.
