The Antarctic Snow Cruiser was an experimental, behemoth, deep cold, Diesel Electric Hybrid, Antarctic-ready landship designed in the 1930s. It was like a space shuttle for the South Pole. It drove through Schenectady using GE motors. Its crew included a Schenectady man, Anthony Wayne, who unfortunately recently passed. The pre WWII mission was part of the U. S. Antarctic Service under Admiral Byrds command, to speed up exploration work and scientific investigation as well as to claim the continent as a United States possession by maintaining colonies there for three years as required by international agreement. It was equipped with a five-passenger airplane to map most of the South Polar Continent by means of aerial cameras. It was nearly 40 tons, nearly 60 feet long by 20 feet wide. A tire and its rim alone weigh 3100 pounds each. It had total fuel tank capacity of 3,500 gallons. It included a revolutionary General Electric Diesel Electric Hybrid Powertrain. The Snow Cruiser was built in three months by the Research Foundation of Armour Institute of Technology. Principal units in its makeup include a special alloy steel body built by the Pullman company, two six-cylinder 672 cubic inch, 150 hp Cummings Diesel engines, General Electric generators and. motors, and controls for steering, braking and jacking, by Hydraulic Controls Inc. The airplane is a specially designed Beechcraft with a 350 hp Wright Whirlwind engine. Two 150 hp six-cylinder Diesel engines drive GE 56 kW electric generators which supplied current to a 75 hp motor in the hub of each wheel. Wheels were steered by hydraulic oil at 2000 pounds pressure under the guidance of two levers located at either side of the driver who sits in an individual chair in the center of the control room. The Snow Cruiser was also known as The Penguin, Penguin 1 or Turtle. It was tested in a variety of conditions and climates, including through Schenectady. Driving out of Schenectady, nearly an hour was consumed on a street which, with cars parked along either curb, left about a foot to spare on either side. Finally travelling to the Antarctic for further testing and use in 1940. Due to an oversight, the large tires, designed for swampy ground did not provide the expected traction in the snow and ice. During deployment, the tires spun rapidly and actually sank the land craft three feet into the snow. The crew discovered that the tires produced more traction when driven backwards, at one point driving 92 miles, driven completely in reverse. The crew had to make modifications improvising with auxillary wheels. On January 24, 1940, F. Alton Wade was left in charge of a partial crew. The scientists conducted seismologic experiments, cosmic-ray measurements, and ice core sampling while living in the snow and timber-covered Snow Cruiser. Funding for the project was canceled as the focus in the United States became World War II. Eventually, as the US focused on WWII, development ceased, and the Cruiser was abandoned in The Antarctic, and lost in the deep snowfall. In the late 1940s, an expedition team found the vehicle and discovered it needed only air in the tires and some servicing to make it operational. In 1958, an international expedition uncovered the snow cruiser using a bulldozer. It was covered by several feet of snow but a long bamboo pole marked its position. They were able to dig down to the location of the bottom of the wheels and accurately measure the amount of snowfall since it was abandoned. Inside, the vehicle was exactly as the crew had left it, with papers, magazines, and cigarettes scattered all around. Later expeditions reported no trace of the vehicle. Although there was some unsubstantiated speculation that the (traction-less) Snow Cruiser was taken by the Soviet Union during the Cold War, the vehicle most likely is either at the bottom of the Southern Ocean or buried deep under snow and ice. Today the craft is possibly in Russian hands, long forgotten, in a warehouse somewhere catalogued as a captured US military vehicle. It may be at the bottom of the ocean. It may yet be buried under snow again ready to be fitted with better tires and driven out. 30 photos, be sure to see them all. Credit to Paul Garrow for his post yesterday that got me researching this.
Posted on: Fri, 23 Jan 2015 12:42:56 +0000
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