The strangest tanks: "Meteor"
What are the designers capable of having received carte blanche? Flying equipment, Tanks with four tracks, military Robots This is just the tip of the engineering iceberg. We present the project "The Strangest Fighting Vehicles of the World" from the creators of the legendary game World of Tanks. The rubric tells about the amazing, daring and failed decisions of tank engineers. The protagonist of this issue is the Meteor armored train tank.
In 1941, an unusual project came to the table of the office of the People's Commissariat of Defense of the USSR. A resident of Syzran, Vasily Nikitich Emelyanov, turned personally to Stalin and offered to consider his invention - the "Super-high-speed universal armored train-tank" Vezdekhod ". He argued that the car would be able to travel on any terrain at speeds up to 200 km / h, including sticky and hard soils, rivers and even mountains.
The all-terrain vehicle's articulated body allowed it to flex like a caterpillar. As conceived by the author, this was to significantly increase the chances of the technique to get out of the difficult terrain of rugged terrain. However, the development was skeptical. The car's ability to ride comfortably was questioned due to its too large mass.
Emelyanov was a medical assistant by profession and a passionate inventor by spirit. Every year he stormed the ministries with his projects. The list of proposals included a hydraulic log lifter, a rocket revolver for the automatic launch of aircraft, an oil-fired steam locomotive and ... an armored train-tank. However, unlike other self-taught, Emelyanov paid attention to design mistakes and mistakes. After 2 years, he submitted to the management a revised project called "Universal armored train-tank" Meteor ".
Drawings and calculations were attached to the detailed description of the armored train. The improved machine could now move on rails and rough terrain, both on tracked and wheeled vehicles. As conceived by the designer, in the event of blockages or destruction on the railroad tracks, "Meteor" could quickly "change shoes" on tracks or wheels, bypass the obstacle or destroy the enemy, and then get back on the rails and continue moving. However, Yemelyanov was not too concerned about the detailed study of the mover. Much more information he provided about how his car can inflict damage to the enemy.
Meteor differed from the first project primarily in size. It was 4 times shorter, and its height and width decreased from six meters to three meters. The speed remained the same - more than 200 km / h. Although this car already looked like an ordinary tank of the Great Patriotic War, modern historians do not trust the declared indicators too much. In their opinion, it was hardly possible to combine high speed on rails with good maneuverability and mobility on ordinary terrain.
During the war, Vasily Yemelyanov closely followed the successes and failures of the Soviet army and hoped that his armored tank train would contribute to the fight against the enemy. In the letter, he emphasized that the cost of the project would be minimal, and the effect would be impressive, because the machine would become truly versatile. Just what is the ability of an armored train to rush forward at the declared speed on literally everything that burns. In addition, the "Meteor" could carry several carriages with soldiers, ammunition and artillery.
The "omnivorous" steam boiler was located in the middle of the building. 2 installed jacks were responsible for lifting and lowering to the ground, and instead of wheels, the car had metal discs, allowing it to move both on rails and on tracks. It was also proposed to protect both the body and the boiler itself with thick armor.
Numerous correspondences with the military departments prompted the inventor to make several options for each item of the armored train device, but despite all the efforts, the project remained on paper. According to historians, even now, many of the designer's solutions can be considered non-trivial and interesting. However, the lack of special education and misunderstanding of the nuances of design did not allow him to see all the subtleties and potential problems of his brainchild.
For more details about the Meteor armored train-tank, as well as about the paramedic-inventor Vasily Yemelyanov, see the video from Wargaming.
In 1941, an unusual project came to the table of the office of the People's Commissariat of Defense of the USSR. A resident of Syzran, Vasily Nikitich Emelyanov, turned personally to Stalin and offered to consider his invention - the "Super-high-speed universal armored train-tank" Vezdekhod ". He argued that the car would be able to travel on any terrain at speeds up to 200 km / h, including sticky and hard soils, rivers and even mountains.
The all-terrain vehicle's articulated body allowed it to flex like a caterpillar. As conceived by the author, this was to significantly increase the chances of the technique to get out of the difficult terrain of rugged terrain. However, the development was skeptical. The car's ability to ride comfortably was questioned due to its too large mass.
Emelyanov was a medical assistant by profession and a passionate inventor by spirit. Every year he stormed the ministries with his projects. The list of proposals included a hydraulic log lifter, a rocket revolver for the automatic launch of aircraft, an oil-fired steam locomotive and ... an armored train-tank. However, unlike other self-taught, Emelyanov paid attention to design mistakes and mistakes. After 2 years, he submitted to the management a revised project called "Universal armored train-tank" Meteor ".
Drawings and calculations were attached to the detailed description of the armored train. The improved machine could now move on rails and rough terrain, both on tracked and wheeled vehicles. As conceived by the designer, in the event of blockages or destruction on the railroad tracks, "Meteor" could quickly "change shoes" on tracks or wheels, bypass the obstacle or destroy the enemy, and then get back on the rails and continue moving. However, Yemelyanov was not too concerned about the detailed study of the mover. Much more information he provided about how his car can inflict damage to the enemy.
Meteor differed from the first project primarily in size. It was 4 times shorter, and its height and width decreased from six meters to three meters. The speed remained the same - more than 200 km / h. Although this car already looked like an ordinary tank of the Great Patriotic War, modern historians do not trust the declared indicators too much. In their opinion, it was hardly possible to combine high speed on rails with good maneuverability and mobility on ordinary terrain.
During the war, Vasily Yemelyanov closely followed the successes and failures of the Soviet army and hoped that his armored tank train would contribute to the fight against the enemy. In the letter, he emphasized that the cost of the project would be minimal, and the effect would be impressive, because the machine would become truly versatile. Just what is the ability of an armored train to rush forward at the declared speed on literally everything that burns. In addition, the "Meteor" could carry several carriages with soldiers, ammunition and artillery.
The "omnivorous" steam boiler was located in the middle of the building. 2 installed jacks were responsible for lifting and lowering to the ground, and instead of wheels, the car had metal discs, allowing it to move both on rails and on tracks. It was also proposed to protect both the body and the boiler itself with thick armor.
Numerous correspondences with the military departments prompted the inventor to make several options for each item of the armored train device, but despite all the efforts, the project remained on paper. According to historians, even now, many of the designer's solutions can be considered non-trivial and interesting. However, the lack of special education and misunderstanding of the nuances of design did not allow him to see all the subtleties and potential problems of his brainchild.
For more details about the Meteor armored train-tank, as well as about the paramedic-inventor Vasily Yemelyanov, see the video from Wargaming.
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