There is no limit to the flight of human fantasy, it can manifest itself in the most unthinkable areas for this. This happened with armored vehicles - a person did not always imagine a heavy combat vehicle as, for example, the legendary T-34 looks like. There were projects, the brainchild of which could look like anything, but not a tank. Here are 7 of the most unusual armored vehicles.
Jumping Scout
In the midst of the tension of the Cold War, many countries around the world considered a variety of types of both weapons and intelligence technologies. One of these was an attempt to develop an armored vehicle capable of literally "jumping" over long distances. Such a strange, at first glance, technique was needed in order to conduct close reconnaissance, having this is the ability to simultaneously overcome natural obstacles in the form of rivers and, for example, radioactive clouds.
Projects of such a "jumping" scout appeared at different times in several countries. Most of all on this path were the Germans, who, it seemed, always gravitated towards unusual developments. They even built a prototype machine capable of jumping two kilometers. However, the project was still recognized as unpromising, since at that time there were other, more advanced technologies.
"Avrocar" - a flying armored vehicle
The project of a flying armored vehicle, made in the shape of a saucer, was the brainchild of the Canadian company Avro. This development appeared in the late 1940s and was considered almost a miracle of engineering. The armored vehicle, or "Avrokar" was supposed to develop a speed of 480 km / h at an altitude of 5 to 30 meters above the ground. In addition, the car had to be equipped with the latest weapons. The crew consisted of two people - a pilot and an operator.
At first, the project was actively developing, but it had many drawbacks - the "flying armored vehicle" turned out to be poorly controlled, low-powered and too vulnerable. Therefore, already in the mid-1950s, the development of the Avrocar was closed.
Air cushion armored vehicle
This unusual development was originally from the Soviet Union. In the 1930s, Levkov's design bureau was actively working on a BMP project that would move on an air cushion. It was assumed that such vehicles would be able to pass in any hard-to-reach places and provide support for the infantry.
However, on the eve of the war, the project was curtailed due to the complexity of these machines in operation and repair. But then they remembered about him already in the 1960s. Even a design model was built and successfully tested. However, the air-cushion infantry fighting vehicles never entered service with the Soviet army. The reasons were practically the same as a quarter of a century ago - the complexity of production and the difficulty of repair in the field.
"Nuclear Tank" - "Object 279"
Another brainchild of Soviet engineers during the Cold War. When the threat of the use of nuclear weapons literally hung in the air, military engineers undertook to develop equipment that could work and protect the crew under such difficult conditions. This is how the "Object 279", or "Atomic Monster" appeared.
The tank was supposed to be sealed and protected, in addition, it was supposed to endow it with heavy armor and an engine of 1000 horsepower. The author of the unusual project was Zh.Ya. Kotin, who even built a prototype. The "atomic tank" turned out to be almost 60 tons in weight and 10 meters long. However, the "monster" was never adopted - the tension between the two superpowers subsided, and a nuclear war did not happen.
Sharotank
An unusual invention - an armored vehicle in the shape of a ball - was the creation of the engineers of Hitler's Germany, which even managed to take part in the hostilities of the Second World War.
They learned about the strange brainchild of armored vehicles absolutely by accident - Soviet troops in Manchuria captured it in 1945. Apparently, the car was just put into service, because there are no analogues to the Red Army trophy. It is assumed that the "ball-tank" was used to adjust the work of artillery as a mobile armored unit.
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Flying tank
During the war years, the progress of engineering is accelerating, so there is nothing surprising in the fact that in the midst of hostilities they came up with another unusual armored vehicle - a flying tank. We are talking about the famous Soviet T-60 vehicle.
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The idea to "put on the wings" a light tank T-60, adding a tail unit, belonged to the famous aircraft designer Oleg Antonov. According to his proposal, such a machine could be dropped by bombers from the air, then it would flew independently, approaching the target, and after landing, the tail and wings were supposed to dump. At first, an interesting idea was accepted: in 1942, a prototype was constructed, which was even tested. However, this strange project was still closed.
Schumann's armored car
This vehicle can hardly be called a unit of armored vehicles, if only because at the beginning of the 20th century, when it was invented, this type of military weapons did not yet exist as such. German engineer Max Schumann designed a spherical carriage that acted as an autonomous firing point in combat conditions. It was only required to deliver the armored car to the place by horses. Surprisingly, this strange machine performed well in the conditions of the "trench" of the First World War.
In addition to the topic: "Ten" tanks, which are reputed to be the most formidable combat vehicles on the planet
A source: https://novate.ru/blogs/061019/51982/