Admiral Byrd's Snow Cruiser

[Old Wombat]

My wife just came across this on Facebook & showed me, so I looked it up on Google.





As I don't do Facebook (or any other social media, other than online modelling sites) I thought I'd link to Google:

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

https://www.google.com.au/search?q=admiral+byrd+snow+cruiser&biw=1280&bih=647&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0ahUKEwjgnKPBv-bPAhVQ2GMKHWC2AqIQsAQILQ#imgrc=_

[zenrat]

Jerry Anderson eat your heart out.
This thing is awesome!

"While having several innovative features, it generally failed to operate as hoped under the difficult conditions, and was eventually abandoned in Antarctica. Rediscovered under a deep layer of snow in 1958, it later disappeared again due to shifting ice conditions." (from the wiki link above).

And it's still out there somewhere!

<later>
Having actually read the whole wiki article I would like top retract that "awesome".
It still looks great though and i'd love to build one in scale.

[Old Wombat]

I think its biggest failing was its tyres. Perhaps with decent snow-tread tyres in woud have worked acceptably, at least.

I still think it looks awesome &, if the Admiral had been using his brain instead of his ego, I think it may have been an awesome performer, too.

[PR19_Kit]

Why ever did he think that using slick tyres on snow would work? 

It certainly looked impressive though, and it carried its own aircraft!

[NARSES2]

Looking at it on its own you'd think it was a 50's design ? Definitely doesn't look late 30's to me

[JayBee]

The aircraft looks to be a Staggerwing on ski's, also cool.

Indeed it is as can be seen in the cover illustration of Air Enthusiast 6, March 1978.

[sandiego89]

Yep, very neat and still there...bring a shovel...

[Old Wombat]

Yep, very neat and still there...bring a shovel...

Maybe not. Part of the (Ross?) ice shelf broke away some years ago, cutting straight through Little America, & no-one knows which side of the separation it was on.

So, by now, there's a better than 50% chance it's sitting on the bottom of the ocean.

[Weaver]

It looks cool, but it really isn't a very well thought out design. The only reason for using big wheels rather than a larger number of smaller wheels is that the big wheels have a greater ability to climb vertical obstacles, but that's totally compromised in the Snow Cruiser by the massive overhangs at front and back and the relatively low ground clearance. If you tried to climb a slope that was just a bit too steep, the front overhang would dig in and you'd be stopped (at best) or stuck (at worst).

The idea of pushing itself across crevasses by retracting the front wheel and pushing with the back wheels is just barmpot. The location of the wheels near the centre means that the rear ones would run off the edge of the crevass lng before they needed to and why retract the front ones anyway? Why not just drive off the edge? The biggest danger comes, again, from the overhang. If the far side of the crevass is even slightly higher than the near side, or if the bow digs in when it gets across, then you're stuck again, Because there's no way for the bow to climb the edge. You could have the bow firmly stuck while the front wheels flailed in mid-air.

The amount of internal volume wasted for the spare tire compartment is ridiculous. Why not carry them on the roof behind the cab, level up the ceiling of the rear compartment to give the same headroom as the rest of the interior, carry the plane slightly further aft, and have slightly longer ramps to unload it?

[kerick]

Keeping the spare tires inside the vehicle probably had more to do with have some heat supplied to them. If they applied heat from the exhaust to the main tires perhaps some was supplied to the spares. You are right about the cravass crossing. Totally bogus. Now with tracks like a snow cat I bet it would have been much better.

[Weaver]

Okay then: keep the tires on the roof and put a lightweight cover over them which you can heat: there was a heating system running throughout the vehicle.

There's quite a few videos of thisd thing on YouTube. One thing I noticed was that it was constantly rocking back and forth in pitch, even when it was driving down flat tarmac roads. That's probably another consequence of the overhangs.

[zenrat]

I don't care about all those shortcomings.  It looks way cool.

[jcf]

There's quite a few videos of thisd thing on YouTube. One thing I noticed was that it was constantly rocking back and forth in pitch, even when it was driving down flat tarmac roads. That's probably another consequence of the overhangs.

Probably more to do with the characteristics of the hydraulic suspension and steering system.

http://www.joeld.net/snowcruiser/polar_record_23.html

http://www.joeld.net/snowcruiser/Armour1.html

[jcf]

Why ever did he think that using slick tyres on snow would work? 

It certainly looked impressive though, and it carried its own aircraft!

Adding treaded tires would have made little difference, indeed they would probably just have
dug a deeper hole faster.

The Polar Record article I linked in the reply to Harold, from Joel Dirnberger's site, is the best discussion of the design issues.

[TheChronicOne]

I don't care about all those shortcomings.  It looks way cool.

Same here.... reminds me of the airport tugs.  (but cooler)