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Admiral Byrd’s snow cruiser designed for Antarctic exploration drives through traffic. Massachusetts, 1939. (Colorized) (lemmy.world)
submitted 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) by setsneedtofeed@lemmy.world to c/historyphotos@piefed.social
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[–] Blaster_M@lemmy.world 19 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Slick tires... in the snow. 10/10 best idea. Works as well as manhole covers for wheels.

[–] jispal01@lemmy.world 36 points 6 days ago (1 children)

lol, you aint kidding.

As the vehicle was unloaded from the ship, one of the wheels broke through the ramp.[5] The crew cheered when Poulter powered the vehicle free from the ramp but the cheers fell silent when the vehicle failed to move through the snow and ice. The large, smooth, treadless tires were originally designed for a large swamp vehicle; they spun freely and provided very little forward movement, sinking as much as 3 feet (0.91 m) into the snow. The crew attached the two spare tires to the front wheels of the vehicle and installed chains on the rear wheels, but were unable to overcome the lack of traction. The crew later found that the tires produced more traction when driven backwards. The longest trek was 92 miles (148 km) – driven completely in reverse.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antarctic_Snow_Cruiser

[–] iturnedintoanewt@lemmy.world 11 points 6 days ago

AFAIK this device was an utter failure. The Soviets figured a much better one (the Kharkovchanka) and to this day those are still in use in the Antartic base.

[–] setsneedtofeed@lemmy.world 9 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Number of Admiral Boyd's Antarctic expeditions: 5

Number of Blaster M's Antarctic expeditions: ???

[–] Blaster_M@lemmy.world 6 points 6 days ago

Well then don't take my word for it. Look at the other person's reply to my post that goes to the Wikipedia article about it.

[–] ChicoSuave@lemmy.world 4 points 6 days ago

Give them the same financial backing and see which one is more successful.