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Admiral Byrd’s snow cruiser designed for Antarctic exploration drives through traffic. Massachusetts, 1939. (Colorized) (lemmy.world)
submitted 4 months ago* by to c/historyphotos@piefed.social
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[–] 27 points 4 months ago (2 children)

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

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  • [–] 44 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    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

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  • [–] [S] 11 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    Number of Admiral Boyd's Antarctic expeditions: 5

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

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    • [–] 21 points 4 months 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.

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    [–] 20 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 child)

    If it wasn't for the old timey cars around it I could have believed it is the new 2027 "Extended cab" Dodge Ram.

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    • [–] 16 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    I wonder how many gallons to the mile that bad boy got.

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    • [–] 5 points 4 months ago

    See that black car in the lower left? I want one of those. I want to convert it to all electric. Then I want to power it using solar panels installed on the roof of my garage.

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    [–] 4 points 4 months ago

    https://youtu.be/pW0eZRoQ86g?is=ufFOx2-E06swi9fi

    A good Mustard video on this creation.

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    [–] 3 points 4 months ago*

    Out of curiosity, where is this thing today? Abandoned in Antartica? Or did they bring it back for the scrap metal value? Or did it make it to a museum?

    (Late edit after some Googling. Thanks wikipedia!) It was last seen in 1958. At that time, it was buried under 20 feet of snow. Has not been seen since. Good chance it was either taken by the USSR, or fell through the ice during a particularly large ice break in 1963.

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    [–] 2 points 4 months ago

    Do you know where in MA that is?

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