|
The US Air Force is not usually thought of as a big user of trucks, but back in the 1950s, when the threat of Godless Communism could generate effectively infinite amounts of money to spend, the USAF saw fit to commission the design and construction of their very own family of cross-country vehicles to support the Mace missile program. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJ_D9wEIspk The MM-1 was unique enough to escape the usual military designation system, and retained the name "Teracruzer." It looks more like a railroad flatcar on balloons than a truck, as one of the "Rollagon" school of ultra-low-pressure tire trucks. It steered like a railcar, too--the whole four-wheel front bogey swivels as one piece. For a while, the mobile basing of the Mace cruise missiles rested on the backs of the Teracruzers, puttering through the backroads of (then-)West Germany.  The mobile Mace program ended around 1966, and no one else needed the goofy-looking trucks despite their essentially zero ground pressure (they could run over people without injuring them, allegedly) and the Air Force sold all of them off. Fifty years later, there appears to be exactly one survivor, which had been employed by an Alaskan mining company. And it's for sale. Some kind soul in Florida is attempting to set up a conservancy for the thing: https://www.gofundme.com/nh877p7w (I thought about posting this in the TFR Cold War thread, but figured this is where more kind-hearted restorers would be)
|
#
?
Nov 3, 2015 22:46
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 7, 2024 22:24 |
|
|
That's cool as hell, but that "allegedly" seems like BS. That said ... Man, I want to drive that.
|
|
#
?
Nov 3, 2015 22:54
|
|
|
Where does one get new tires for a thing like that... and speaking of which, how did the Air Force get low-volume tires like that in the first place?
|
|
#
?
Nov 4, 2015 09:47
|
|
|
bolind posted:Where does one get new tires for a thing like that... and speaking of which, how did the Air Force get low-volume tires like that in the first place? With the sort of copious amounts of money they were willing to throw around back then in the name of keeping Ivan contained, very easily, I'd imagine.
|
|
#
?
Nov 4, 2015 13:13
|
|
|
Madurai posted:(they could run over people without injuring them, allegedly) Whoever ends up buying this needs to test this out and record the results (maybe on something that's analogous to a living being). That's nuts.
|
|
#
?
Nov 5, 2015 04:55
|
|
|
I nominate Donald Trump as the test subject.
|
|
#
?
Nov 5, 2015 11:17
|
|
|
KozmoNaut posted:I nominate Donald Trump as the test subject. Test subject for the newly invented 'not at all dangerous to people' steamroller? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVAsLQgsyl8
|
|
#
?
Nov 5, 2015 13:56
|
|
|
Neat.
|
|
#
?
Nov 5, 2015 17:46
|
|
|
Similar vehicle, seen running over people around 13:40 or so: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcTyKkvsh0k
|
|
#
?
Nov 5, 2015 18:25
|
|
|
Madurai posted:The US Air Force is not usually thought of as a big user of trucks, but back in the 1950s, when the threat of Godless Communism could generate effectively infinite amounts of money to spend, the USAF saw fit to commission the design and construction of their very own family of cross-country vehicles to support the Mace missile program. Oh hey, they have one of those missiles outside the Air Museum in Warner Robins.
|
|
#
?
Nov 5, 2015 19:11
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 7, 2024 22:24 |
|
|
Madurai posted:Similar vehicle, seen running over people around 13:40 or so: Oh god the music in this video and the mass of audio noise makes it sound almost like a Boards of Canada LP. 
|
|
#
?
Nov 5, 2015 19:56
|
|