- 87,668
- Rule 12
- GTP_Famine
Back in the 1930s, the Antarctic was still largely mysterious - Amundsen's trek to the South Pole and Scott's failed Terra Nova expedition were both still fresh in the memory from 1911/1912.
The rise of Nazi Germany and its bent on world dominance saw Hitler take an interest in this continent, just as much as his famed passion for the occult, which got Washington DC interested too. Enter Admiral Richard Byrd, who was obsessed with the Antarctic - believing in the Inner Passage myth of portals at the Earth's poles to fertile lands within the planet. With two expeditions already under his belt, he led a third, largely self-equipped mission to establish bases in Antarctica and beat the Nazis to it.
Of course, a mission of such importance couldn't be left to groups of men, striding across the snow and so he commissioned a vehicle to be built.
Designed by Thomas Poulter and constructed at the Armour Research Foundation (now the Illinois Institute of Technology), the Antarctic Snow Cruiser - nicknamed Penguin or, depending on the literature, Turtle - was a behemoth intended to transport 5 people around the ridiculous conditions for up to a year, with a range of around 5,000 miles.
Amusingly, the Penguin was a very early hybrid car, with a diesel-electric powertrain. With two 150hp Cummins diesel units and four 75hp General Electric motors, it had a combined total power output of 600hp. Don't expect a turn of pace though - the Penguin was 17 metres long and weighed 36 tonnes, so it topped out at 30mph. Still, if you wanted speed, it came equipped with its own plane - a Beechcraft D17 Staggerwing - and a 2,500 litre fuel supply on board for it, alongside its own 9,500 litre fuel tank.
Surprisingly, given that it was 6 metres wide (20 feet), it saw some road use as it was driven from Chicago to Boston to board the North Star for its journey to the Antarctic. This wasn't without mishap, as it fell off a bridge that was slightly too narrow and spent three days in a ditch as a result. It completed the journey under its own power in 19 days.
Not that things went better in the South. It nearly fell off the ship disembarking and then the expedition found it was next to useless in the snow anyway. Shortly thereafter, some bright spark noticed it had far more traction in reverse, so it was driven in reverse, 90 miles across the ice sheets. After Byrd and Poulter left the continent, a team used it as a mobile base for ice core samples for a short while until it was left behind.
A later expedition in 1940 discovered the Penguin buried under a considerable amount of snow - despite being 4 metres tall, it was buried to the point of its position being marked only by a bamboo pole. A little servicing and air rendered it functional again and it was brought to the base Little America III. When this base also fell out of use, the Cruiser was buried again by snow and found in 1958 by an expedition which dug the base back up - but the Cruiser was assumed lost when the Little America site on the ice sheets broke up and was carried to sea in 1963.
The rise of Nazi Germany and its bent on world dominance saw Hitler take an interest in this continent, just as much as his famed passion for the occult, which got Washington DC interested too. Enter Admiral Richard Byrd, who was obsessed with the Antarctic - believing in the Inner Passage myth of portals at the Earth's poles to fertile lands within the planet. With two expeditions already under his belt, he led a third, largely self-equipped mission to establish bases in Antarctica and beat the Nazis to it.
Of course, a mission of such importance couldn't be left to groups of men, striding across the snow and so he commissioned a vehicle to be built.
I'm definitely for this.
