Yeah since that video went up I've been seeing a lot of the same discussion on the cruiser so I thought I'd try to answer a few of the most common comments that I see!
@@CalumRaasay honestly I am glad you put it in my mind and hope more info can be found A question I have though is, is the couple planning on making the plane look like its snow exploration self or would that be too out of season for a place like theirs?
I find it so strangely haunting thinking about that thing at the bottom of the freezing, black ocean. I'd imagine the temperature would keep it relatively well preserved. What a crazy discovery it would be if they found it again. Also, love the content - keep it up!
I literally just went down a deep dive wiki hole about this thing last week. I still think it’s incredible that they built this hot mess in just 11 weeks. I’ve seen my fair share of SEMA cars get pushed in cuz they couldn’t finish it in 6 months.
@@CalumRaasay Your video has Inspired me to start a project on building a motorized model of the snow cruiser out of Lego. Right now I am trying to figure out the right scale to make all of the functions work while retaining interior space for minifigures. Working off of original blueprints.
I wonder how the snow cruiser would have gone if they had managed to get it away from the heavy and relatively warm snow of the coast and into the Antarctic interior.
It depends what you mean. If you mean just hypothetically plonking it down in the Antarctic interior, then it would have got stuck there too. If you mean had they managed to drive It into the Antarctic interior, how would it have got on, then you're hypothesising a different design that was absent the flaws that caused it to immediately get stuck (i.e. Weighing too much in relation to tyre contact area and resulting point-load put on the snow overcoming friction and allowing wheel-slip) in which case it might have been okay. I guess,, since you're alluding to the possibility that the problem was not in the design, but the fault of 'the wrong type of snow' that you're an employee of Network Rail?!
@@K1lostream I have no idea who Network Rail is, are you assuming my nationality? I've spent a lot of time in Antarctica and I can tell you there's a huge difference in the amount and consistency of the snow near the coast and the snow on the ice cap. Would it have worked? Don't know, hence my comment.
Graham O The report said it might have gotten 'a little further' if it had been built to aircraft specifications rather than railcar ones. It also said it was too heavy by a factor of three to five for the tyres available. Whilst I am aware that snow can have consistencies varying from powder to polystyrene, being overweight by such a non-trivial factor would make that something of an irrelevance. Perhaps if the performance had been marginal, but it was not even close to being a viable design. The Network Rail comment was rather UK-centric, I'm afraid. They are the UK rail operator and one of the things Brits love to do is ridicule their excuses for being unable to keep trains running - in winter their go-to trope is to blame 'the wrong type of snow' hoping we won't realise Canada, for example, routinely keep their track operable in conditions far worse than anything the UK experiences, including on occasion, the worst possible consistency of snow. (In spring it is flooding, in summer it is the heat and in autumn it is leaves on the line, so they have excuses to cover the whole year for why the service is consistently shit).
I wonder if the depth of the water and mass of the vehicle would allow it to be detected by a Magnetic Anomaly Detector from a sub hunting aircraft? Edit: it’s a long shot but a magnetic survey was undertaken by the USGS. I’m not sure if the instrumentation was sensitive enough for something like the snowcruiser to show up if someone went over the data with a fine toothed comb.
Problem is - that is high chance that it smashed into little pieces in the fragmenting iceberg stage. Millions of tonnes of snow and ice and fairly thin steel.... Yes shipwrecks can be found intact... but they were not frozen in the ice cliff then ground along it after it fractured and then fragmented. And MAD looks for big masses all in one place.. and apart from engine block, chassis , suspension and transmission most it will have been fairly lightweight thin steel. Fragment ot down, MAD wont find it.
Big difference with Kharkovchanka is while they got similar time frame for building, one is builded from ground up and other has to adapt proven design. And also, Kharkovchanka wasn't trully autonomous-they had limited, but vital logistic supply by air. For their threads' load and outside conditions, it needed constant maintenance.
Thanks for this follow-up. Definitely one of the most interesting vehicles. Somewhat like a deep space spaceship...well, without space, but still. I aboslutely love this topic. And so far your video/s on this topic seem to be the best ones in production quality, detail and personality ^^
Nice job on these documentaries! I've been fascinated by the Snow Cruiser since reading about it in old car magazines in the 1980s, and because of that I've been fascinated by all things Antarctica. Especially land transportation there. It's interesting that while it was a failure in the 1930s, the Snow Cruiser has helped keep discussions and research about that continent going for decades!
Nice one Calum! Cool follow up. So good to see the Staggerwing made it through the years. Although it definitely had it's ups & downs! (Did you see what I did there? 😆) Cheers! 🥃
My grandma once showed me a picture it was of admiral bird standing beside the snow curser in byucrus Ohio ,if you would like I could get the photo to show u?
Basically it more or less worked and was decently engineered. But the tires had no tread. Literally no grip on ice and snow. It could barely move. They tried using chains as a last ditch attempt and it barely made a difference. Stupidest fail ever. It could barely make the overland trip to the ship that was going to take it to Antarctica.
Very interesting. You're a natural at this, I'm surprised you don't have 100s of thousands of subscribers! The research you do alone puts most other YT channels to shame. Although, it has to be said that the Snow Cruiser was a badly designed vehicle, built in a rush by someone who refused to believe his ideas could be wrong, that then was so useless, it never really went anywhere, and was abandoned and forgotten. Rather ironically, from a British point of view, it bears horrible parallels with Scott's expedition! Whilst I appreciate how interesting all this is, it was basically a failure - and was always going to be. Soviet historians must be looking at all the fuss about this and thiking to themselves "but ours worked!".
12:31 - a thing that came to mind is motorsports, with rally racing on snow a larger wider wheel and tire doesn't do you any justice, you want narrow and studded so this appears to be a case of not being able to test ideas
ok i admit it .. the Snow Cruiser was the first video of Calums i saw .. but then i subscribed & have watched everything he's made .. & they have all been interesting
The fact is there were a lot of very intelligent people who worked on the AC, and intuitively their decisions make sense at first. You go with wheels instead of tracks because wheels are a lot lighter and easier to replace, and in a place as remote as Antarctica that means a lot. You go with a balloon or treadless design because if you're just driving on relatively flat, packed snow, and not going very fast, then you don't really need tread. These decisions were wrong and misguided, and the whole philosophy of the vehicle just didn't work. But at the time it's really easy to see how these decisions got made.
Its pretty interesting to see that you and other creators have basically shown millions of people this long forgotten piece of hardware. Thats just insane! Many thanks again for such informative video!
I've not watched past the section that described it sinking in the snow unable to surmount that problem. Two improvements Keep the dual wheels but upgrade to eight huge rice paddy tires used in farming today with the equally huge 4-wheel drive tractors and add chains to provide more traction. Sorry just what iffing.
I have been to McMurdo and had access to one of the National Science Foundation Ford vans with a 4X4 conversion and 44" tires (if I remember that correctly). The REALLY cool ones did in fact have four individual track assemblies, but the one I had could power itself around pretty well. You only really need to drive around on the hard-packed snow roads or the lava rock roads anyway, though, in the typical work on or around McMurdo Base. The snow cruiser was clearly underpowered and unsafe and completely unacceptable for going too far away from the base. The huge wheeled personnel carriers like "Ivan the Terrabus" usually work, but when snow drifts cover the roads, it needs to be parked on a huge metal chain link assembly and pulled by a huge Caterpillar loader. They call this "The Magic Carpet Ride". The McMurdo scientists havea sense of humor for everything. I have a picture of a pallet crate with professional-looking spray-painted stenciling that says "Fork Other Side"....when you walk around to the other side of the crate, the same stenciling now reads: "Spoon Other Side". The dorky scientists there are hilarious.
It's so awesome the airplane meant for the cruiser survived and is still around is kind of heart warming. When it was seized for wartime use i almost thought it was going to be the end of it.
If ever anyone were to set out on an expedition for the Snow Cruiser, and if the estimations of the ice shelf drift were accurate, then the chances of finding the Cruiser are [relatively] high. The Ross sea has an average depth of 500-550 meters, and a maximum depth of around 1200. Those depths fall within "The Twilight Zone"; where their is still some natural light. Also, technology like Synthetic Aperture Sonar allows for much more detailed images of objects on the ocean floor (search for sonar images of U-853 for example).
So they already made the big wheels and they were having issues with him because of no tread and stuff so why would they have not tried to put chains on the tires they could even made special chains that get even more traction with studs on them
Keep in mind that the Soviets used tracked vehicles rather successfully in the Arctic. I blame Good Year for the tires as they surely wanted to promote rubber tires. Interestingly, the Soviets tried to learn from the American SnowCruiser and their first attempt also put the engine in an interior space on the premise that you would be sheltered while doing maintenance but because of that, the engines overheated, the interior cabin was too noisy and exhaust soot got everywhere in the living space. They also failed to have auxiliary heating and electrical power in their first version so when the engine wasn't running, they froze. The Soviets with their second version went back to the AT-T tracked trucks as a basis with the engine under a hood in front of the cab, both of which being separate from the interior space. They also included auxiliary heat and power with the second version though they could not benefit from that when maintaining the engine. (I'm surprised the Soviets didn't use one of their Strontium RTG's for auxiliary power). They could've just gone to multiple tracks to be long enough for large crevasses so crossing large crevasses wasn't a reason to not use tracks... I suppose we could say that the Soviets lucked out as they started with surplus tracked vehicles (the surplus AT-T trucks based on the T-54 tank) not purpose built Antarctic vehicles and found the tracks worked well so their purpose built vehicles used tracks whereas the US really had nothing to go on except that some of the financial contributors such as Good Year wanted tires. To be honest, I would've expected a lot of the supports to be skies with tracks for propulsion like a ski-doo. I believe the first Canadian patent for a "motor sleigh" was in 1915 and involved the familiar front skis and rear tracks. The Snowcruiser was 1937 so well after the suitable strategy was already known (at least known in Canada). The Soviet Karkochanka was in 1959 with versions used through 2010 so you could also say they probably learned from the US failure but really why didn't the US just learn from Canadian successes...
I have hope that one day (as you say) while searching for something else they find what's left of the snow cruiser plenty of cases of ships being found entirely by accident as you mention with Terra nova, but another good example is the MV Dona Paz and MT Vector, which were found by a crew off the Philippines who were looking for WW2 Warship wrecksites and happened upon the spot where both ships had collided and sunk I do wonder what state the cruiser is in now days, if we are lucky it probably just sorta "fell out" in one piece but the more sad and likely case is it was well-stuck in the ice and each time it hit the wall it ripped more and more small pieces off, and all that's probably left is a bit of once red colored plating and maybe a wheel or two...shame really
Get Bezos on the phone ! He likes recovering engineering artefacts from the seabed. Also, this is highly relevant just now (Feb 2022), with the expedition to locate Shackleton's "Endurance" in full swing.
I think about the beetle from another one of your video's that fell thru the Ice and sank. Someday somebody is gonna be scanning the bottom and come across this. WTH?? There is a VW parked there! [OK, your relieved of duty for Drinking on the job] 😅
I don't know if I would've had the knowledge to say to builders of that monstrosity: listen, you quarterbrains! This won't work! but I know one thing: if you build something hurriedly for propaganda purposes, it unavoidably turns to shit!
The Rich millionaires are all obsessed with one upping each other with Space crap ATM... Whooohooo I was weightless for 3sec longer than Bezos.... SIGH
The Christie tank suspension system was rejected by the US govt so he sold it to the Soviets, then when American Officials saw it in use they realised they should use a similar system, This was around the same ERA
As far as a million war ships out there (meaning at the bottom to be found), Yes but you had better hurry because of one countries nationals set up to salvage scrap sunken ships for the steel dollar worth. Historic fighting ships have been torn to pieces for this end and most are war graves for the men that went down with their ships giving their lives for their countries only to have their graves desecrated because of greed so more cheap throw away junk can be made for consumers to buy.
Ten Years ago I took a trip round Scotland with the express purpose of going to as many distilleries as possible. Out of all the many single malts I tasted, Talisker was by far my least favourite. Just thought I'd drop that bombshell. :)
Too early to try and find it leave it for a few thousand years so some historian can find it or pieces of it and try to put together what it was and why and how did people of the time make it or was it aliens.
Great videos, I'm really enjoying them. I worked for a company called FMC in the 70's. One product they made was something similar to the snow cruiser and I only saw a photo and description. It looked about the same size as the snow cruiser and I only remember a couple things about it. It had giant wheels perhaps 6-10 feet in diameter but they were very low pressure 3-5 psi and they were designed for minimal damage to permafrost or the tundra. Part of the advertisement showed the giant vehicle rolling over a human being without injury. I remember seeing the photo. I've googled all over and can't find anything on this vehicle. Part of FMC was a division called ESD that eventually became an independent separate company. ESD was know for building one of a kind strange machines, such as the first automated postal sorter, a pepper picker, an automated system for assembling the 3 1/2 inch floppy disk, automated warehouses, coal mining machines and underwater living units. I worked on some very unusual coal mining machines which were called mobile roof supports.
@@CalumRaasay I think that's closer but not quite. I jogged my memory and I think this vehicle was used in the Alaska Pipe Line construction as like a hauler of equipment, even pipe segments. It was massive about the size of the snow cruiser.
You’re video about the snow cruiser was in my Recommended list and I thought I’m going to watch it because it looks weird Well I like this video and last video about it. I wish I was rich so I could find it but I’m not rich, I live in Australia and I’m only 17
Interesting video. I have to admit that I often forget to take into an account the fact that tings obvious to us, were not so obvious years in the past. I now wonder if in the future there will be a guy watching youtube videos on space travel and comment something along" this is so obvious they should use...". Also, I guess I am lucky this video was on my to watch list. May I ask why did you unlist it?
You made mention of the ice breaker Edisto as an army vessel. Ouch. It was U S Navy, then U S Coast Guard. This comment from a coastie. You present very good, informative vids on some now obscure bits of history. I look forward to showing these to a neighbor who worked Antarctica stations for Navy. The push to deploy the snow cruiser was a great, much publicized hurry-up-and-fail. Snow junket.
TOG II* is slightly shorter and slightly shorter in height but wider then the Char 2C tank. It's 10 tons heavier though at 80 logn tons. If I win the lottery which is unlikely because I don't buy lottery tickets I will fund your expedition.
IF it wasn't abraded away/crushed by the chunk's movements, they will likely find it upside down at the bottom. Whilst the balloon tires wouldn't be enough to keep it afloat, it would be enough to force it heavy part down (assuming, they were still inflated). That means that it's likely crushed (much like other things that fell in such a manner, be they planes, boats).
1. design a snowcruiser 2. build the snowcruiser with living suite and scientific gadgets 3. ship it to antarctrica 4. realize that slick tires dont work on snow while your snowcruiser is stuck after rolling off the ramp;
I first discovered the snow cruiser in the mid 80s in an article from a car club called NNN National Nastalgic Nova.. A few years later author Clive Cussler incorporated it into one of his novels, (he had a habit of that).....there were several other articles I came accross purely by chance....Its sad & a testament to the great waist our government does with tax dollars.....all they had to do was move it over some solid land & park it...or better yet ship it home.....maybe it would still be with us today instead of rotting on the seabed....I venture to bet with a real set of snow tires it would have performed admirably
I think there are technically no significant differences when it comes to moving in Arctic or Antarctic terrain. Therefore, I would say the best experts to ask about tansportation in Antarctica would not have been the people who tried and failed there, but would have been those who made it in the Arctic. Therefore, the real experts were more likely to be in the Soviet Union.
Late to comment but I wonder if the idea of underinflating the tires when stuck in soft snow was something they thought of back then? One of the images of the ASC on snow looked like one set of tires at the front were underinflated maybe? Or did Poulter and his team discuss that when the ASC got on solid ice (as often found in the middle of the Antartic) that the tires would need to be more fully inflated?
can't wait in like 10 years time when the snow cruiser just appears on the chilean coast
I'd need to get over there and review before Doug DeMuro
Probably in Argentina, like others from that post world War era
@@CalumRaasay you better not forgor 💀
@@CalumRaasay😅
Maybe the Nazis stole it, modified it to actually work, and are using it on their base.
Haha
When I saw mustard do a vid on it, I instantly remembered learning about it from you first.
Yeah since that video went up I've been seeing a lot of the same discussion on the cruiser so I thought I'd try to answer a few of the most common comments that I see!
@@CalumRaasay honestly
I am glad you put it in my mind and hope more info can be found
A question I have though is, is the couple planning on making the plane look like its snow exploration self or would that be too out of season for a place like theirs?
I find it so strangely haunting thinking about that thing at the bottom of the freezing, black ocean. I'd imagine the temperature would keep it relatively well preserved. What a crazy discovery it would be if they found it again.
Also, love the content - keep it up!
Either that, or crushed by the Arctic Ice
I literally just went down a deep dive wiki hole about this thing last week. I still think it’s incredible that they built this hot mess in just 11 weeks. I’ve seen my fair share of SEMA cars get pushed in cuz they couldn’t finish it in 6 months.
Seeing a plane being dragged around by Husky's is such a surreal thing to see
Amazing isn't it!
@@CalumRaasay surreal, amazing, bizarre
A fully funded expedition in search of this vehicle would be an incredible Interesting project.
The dream!
@@CalumRaasay Your video has Inspired me to start a project on building a motorized model of the snow cruiser out of Lego. Right now I am trying to figure out the right scale to make all of the functions work while retaining interior space for minifigures.
Working off of original blueprints.
@@mrpoool1015 that's awsome
I wonder how the snow cruiser would have gone if they had managed to get it away from the heavy and relatively warm snow of the coast and into the Antarctic interior.
It depends what you mean.
If you mean just hypothetically plonking it down in the Antarctic interior, then it would have got stuck there too.
If you mean had they managed to drive It into the Antarctic interior, how would it have got on, then you're hypothesising a different design that was absent the flaws that caused it to immediately get stuck (i.e. Weighing too much in relation to tyre contact area and resulting point-load put on the snow overcoming friction and allowing wheel-slip) in which case it might have been okay.
I guess,, since you're alluding to the possibility that the problem was not in the design, but the fault of 'the wrong type of snow' that you're an employee of Network Rail?!
@@K1lostream I have no idea who Network Rail is, are you assuming my nationality? I've spent a lot of time in Antarctica and I can tell you there's a huge difference in the amount and consistency of the snow near the coast and the snow on the ice cap. Would it have worked? Don't know, hence my comment.
Graham O The report said it might have gotten 'a little further' if it had been built to aircraft specifications rather than railcar ones. It also said it was too heavy by a factor of three to five for the tyres available.
Whilst I am aware that snow can have consistencies varying from powder to polystyrene, being overweight by such a non-trivial factor would make that something of an irrelevance. Perhaps if the performance had been marginal, but it was not even close to being a viable design.
The Network Rail comment was rather UK-centric, I'm afraid. They are the UK rail operator and one of the things Brits love to do is ridicule their excuses for being unable to keep trains running - in winter their go-to trope is to blame 'the wrong type of snow' hoping we won't realise Canada, for example, routinely keep their track operable in conditions far worse than anything the UK experiences, including on occasion, the worst possible consistency of snow. (In spring it is flooding, in summer it is the heat and in autumn it is leaves on the line, so they have excuses to cover the whole year for why the service is consistently shit).
Or if they took Firestone tires to it from an overland train
I wonder if the depth of the water and mass of the vehicle would allow it to be detected by a Magnetic Anomaly Detector from a sub hunting aircraft?
Edit: it’s a long shot but a magnetic survey was undertaken by the USGS. I’m not sure if the instrumentation was sensitive enough for something like the snowcruiser to show up if someone went over the data with a fine toothed comb.
Problem is - that is high chance that it smashed into little pieces in the fragmenting iceberg stage. Millions of tonnes of snow and ice and fairly thin steel....
Yes shipwrecks can be found intact...
but they were not frozen in the ice cliff then ground along it after it fractured and then fragmented.
And MAD looks for big masses all in one place.. and apart from engine block, chassis , suspension and transmission most it will have been fairly lightweight thin steel. Fragment ot down, MAD wont find it.
Big difference with Kharkovchanka is while they got similar time frame for building, one is builded from ground up and other has to adapt proven design. And also, Kharkovchanka wasn't trully autonomous-they had limited, but vital logistic supply by air. For their threads' load and outside conditions, it needed constant maintenance.
Thanks for this follow-up.
Definitely one of the most interesting vehicles. Somewhat like a deep space spaceship...well, without space, but still.
I aboslutely love this topic. And so far your video/s on this topic seem to be the best ones in production quality, detail and personality ^^
Nice job on these documentaries! I've been fascinated by the Snow Cruiser since reading about it in old car magazines in the 1980s, and because of that I've been fascinated by all things Antarctica. Especially land transportation there. It's interesting that while it was a failure in the 1930s, the Snow Cruiser has helped keep discussions and research about that continent going for decades!
Nice one Calum! Cool follow up. So good to see the Staggerwing made it through the years. Although it definitely had it's ups & downs!
(Did you see what I did there? 😆)
Cheers! 🥃
I am utterly intrigued about this vehicle and mission. I watched your video and another one that came out very close to each other
Mustard recently covered the Snow Cruiser. But Callum did it better.
My grandma once showed me a picture it was of admiral bird standing beside the snow curser in byucrus Ohio ,if you would like I could get the photo to show u?
Basically it more or less worked and was decently engineered. But the tires had no tread. Literally no grip on ice and snow. It could barely move. They tried using chains as a last ditch attempt and it barely made a difference. Stupidest fail ever. It could barely make the overland trip to the ship that was going to take it to Antarctica.
"So, how well does this thing do on ice and snow?"
~No one during the design and building process, apparently
Very interesting. You're a natural at this, I'm surprised you don't have 100s of thousands of subscribers! The research you do alone puts most other YT channels to shame. Although, it has to be said that the Snow Cruiser was a badly designed vehicle, built in a rush by someone who refused to believe his ideas could be wrong, that then was so useless, it never really went anywhere, and was abandoned and forgotten. Rather ironically, from a British point of view, it bears horrible parallels with Scott's expedition! Whilst I appreciate how interesting all this is, it was basically a failure - and was always going to be. Soviet historians must be looking at all the fuss about this and thiking to themselves "but ours worked!".
I honestly think if they ever do find the snow cruiser they should restore it to its former glory!
Is there anything left of Little America 3?
The yellow aircraft is a Boeing I'm 99% sure
The Beach would have been used as a target tug...
The big yellow twin engine biplane is a Curtiss Condor.
12:31 - a thing that came to mind is motorsports, with rally racing on snow a larger wider wheel and tire doesn't do you any justice, you want narrow and studded so this appears to be a case of not being able to test ideas
ok i admit it .. the Snow Cruiser was the first video of Calums i saw .. but then i subscribed & have watched everything he's made .. & they have all been interesting
It's like a poorly engineered SHERP. You can buy a SHERP, and it does what this was supposed to do.....just smaller.
Seems a bit unfair to compare it to a machine produced almost 80 years later though?
The fact is there were a lot of very intelligent people who worked on the AC, and intuitively their decisions make sense at first. You go with wheels instead of tracks because wheels are a lot lighter and easier to replace, and in a place as remote as Antarctica that means a lot. You go with a balloon or treadless design because if you're just driving on relatively flat, packed snow, and not going very fast, then you don't really need tread. These decisions were wrong and misguided, and the whole philosophy of the vehicle just didn't work. But at the time it's really easy to see how these decisions got made.
Exactly, a lot of stuff has to be viewed through the lens of the time. Hard to do with hindsight!
I wish someone would raise and restore the Caspian Sea Monster.
Or even restore Lun' to presentable shape, as planed
Ground-Effect hunk of junk made to kill peasants!
Its pretty interesting to see that you and other creators have basically shown millions of people this long forgotten piece of hardware. Thats just insane! Many thanks again for such informative video!
I've not watched past the section that described it sinking in the snow unable to surmount that problem.
Two improvements
Keep the dual wheels but upgrade to eight huge rice paddy tires used in farming today with the equally huge 4-wheel drive tractors and add chains to provide more traction.
Sorry just what iffing.
Thanks for the update Callum. Very interesting and well presented. Just picked myself up a FDC like yours
Did anyone ask goodyear about those tires they provided🤔
They look like tundra tyres, which kinda makes sense - till you take it to the Antarctic
Ah my question answered as promised 😁
Enjoyed the video heaps mate. Maybe we need some more details on local whisky next...
Haha well I've been in the whisky industry for a long time now, happy to talk about it!
Thanks for the follow-up and for introducing us to such a fascinating piece of history!
All is answered in the first 6 mins of this video. 11weeks to build it! Madness
Please do a vid on the Beechcraft.
Also :Talisker👍
Talisker Port Righ! Best release 🙏
I have been to McMurdo and had access to one of the National Science Foundation Ford vans with a 4X4 conversion and 44" tires (if I remember that correctly).
The REALLY cool ones did in fact have four individual track assemblies, but the one I had could power itself around pretty well. You only really need to drive around on the hard-packed snow roads or the lava rock roads anyway, though, in the typical work on or around McMurdo Base.
The snow cruiser was clearly underpowered and unsafe and completely unacceptable for going too far away from the base.
The huge wheeled personnel carriers like "Ivan the Terrabus" usually work, but when snow drifts cover the roads, it needs to be parked on a huge metal chain link assembly and pulled by a huge Caterpillar loader. They call this "The Magic Carpet Ride".
The McMurdo scientists havea sense of humor for everything. I have a picture of a pallet crate with professional-looking spray-painted stenciling that says "Fork Other Side"....when you walk around to the other side of the crate, the same stenciling now reads: "Spoon Other Side". The dorky scientists there are hilarious.
Weight. ,we use go drive a geo metro in snow and on the jeep trails ..it worked really well
Let’s go find it
It’s at the bottom of the ocean 100%
It's so awesome the airplane meant for the cruiser survived and is still around is kind of heart warming. When it was seized for wartime use i almost thought it was going to be the end of it.
You're too handsome, it's distracting me from learning.
Don't worry that happens a lot
If ever anyone were to set out on an expedition for the Snow Cruiser, and if the estimations of the ice shelf drift were accurate, then the chances of finding the Cruiser are [relatively] high. The Ross sea has an average depth of 500-550 meters, and a maximum depth of around 1200. Those depths fall within "The Twilight Zone"; where their is still some natural light. Also, technology like Synthetic Aperture Sonar allows for much more detailed images of objects on the ocean floor (search for sonar images of U-853 for example).
Some very happy Old Ones have repurposed it into something like a big smokehouse for curing giant penguin meat.
Wonderful addition to that video and general Q&A.
Thank you! Much appreciated!
So they already made the big wheels and they were having issues with him because of no tread and stuff so why would they have not tried to put chains on the tires they could even made special chains that get even more traction with studs on them
They did try chains. But also they had to evacuate the whole thing anyway due to the start of the war so they didn’t have time to try anything else
@@CalumRaasay aww got it
Keep in mind that the Soviets used tracked vehicles rather successfully in the Arctic.
I blame Good Year for the tires as they surely wanted to promote rubber tires. Interestingly, the Soviets tried to learn from the American SnowCruiser and their first attempt also put the engine in an interior space on the premise that you would be sheltered while doing maintenance but because of that, the engines overheated, the interior cabin was too noisy and exhaust soot got everywhere in the living space. They also failed to have auxiliary heating and electrical power in their first version so when the engine wasn't running, they froze. The Soviets with their second version went back to the AT-T tracked trucks as a basis with the engine under a hood in front of the cab, both of which being separate from the interior space. They also included auxiliary heat and power with the second version though they could not benefit from that when maintaining the engine. (I'm surprised the Soviets didn't use one of their Strontium RTG's for auxiliary power).
They could've just gone to multiple tracks to be long enough for large crevasses so crossing large crevasses wasn't a reason to not use tracks...
I suppose we could say that the Soviets lucked out as they started with surplus tracked vehicles (the surplus AT-T trucks based on the T-54 tank) not purpose built Antarctic vehicles and found the tracks worked well so their purpose built vehicles used tracks whereas the US really had nothing to go on except that some of the financial contributors such as Good Year wanted tires.
To be honest, I would've expected a lot of the supports to be skies with tracks for propulsion like a ski-doo. I believe the first Canadian patent for a "motor sleigh" was in 1915 and involved the familiar front skis and rear tracks. The Snowcruiser was 1937 so well after the suitable strategy was already known (at least known in Canada). The Soviet Karkochanka was in 1959 with versions used through 2010 so you could also say they probably learned from the US failure but really why didn't the US just learn from Canadian successes...
I have hope that one day (as you say) while searching for something else they find what's left of the snow cruiser
plenty of cases of ships being found entirely by accident as you mention with Terra nova, but another good example is the MV Dona Paz and MT Vector, which were found by a crew off the Philippines who were looking for WW2 Warship wrecksites and happened upon the spot where both ships had collided and sunk
I do wonder what state the cruiser is in now days, if we are lucky it probably just sorta "fell out" in one piece but the more sad and likely case is it was well-stuck in the ice and each time it hit the wall it ripped more and more small pieces off, and all that's probably left is a bit of once red colored plating and maybe a wheel or two...shame really
Get Bezos on the phone ! He likes recovering engineering artefacts from the seabed. Also, this is highly relevant just now (Feb 2022), with the expedition to locate Shackleton's "Endurance" in full swing.
Thank you very much for the follow up video. I always enjoy your content.
I think about the beetle from another one of your video's that fell thru the Ice and sank. Someday somebody is gonna be scanning the bottom and come across this. WTH?? There is a VW parked there! [OK, your relieved of duty for Drinking on the job] 😅
I don't know if I would've had the knowledge to say to builders of that monstrosity: listen, you quarterbrains! This won't work! but I know one thing: if you build something hurriedly for propaganda purposes, it unavoidably turns to shit!
The Rich millionaires are all obsessed with one upping each other with Space crap ATM...
Whooohooo I was weightless for 3sec longer than Bezos.... SIGH
More abandoned, human equipment clutter making the Earth ugly. Same ugly abandoned equipment clutter all over Alaska also.
This is the first time I've seen Calum's face. I subscribed off the Snow cruiser video. He looks exactly how I imagined him
Hahaha I truly hope thats a compliment
@@CalumRaasay It is. I wish I had your accent. Epic accent.
The Christie tank suspension system was rejected by the US govt so he sold it to the Soviets, then when American Officials saw it in use they realised they should use a similar system, This was around the same ERA
so it was less that it was poorly designed, and more that it was basically a half-baked prototype, rushed into the field prematurely... 🤔
So the Australian government was tyrannical back then as well.
Claiming planes to use during a world war is pretty weak tyrannical moves. The hundreds of years mistreating Aboriginals probably ranks above that.
@@CalumRaasay The br*tish started that tradition. After all they have got a "reputation" to uphold.
As far as a million war ships out there (meaning at the bottom to be found), Yes but you had better hurry because of one countries nationals set up to salvage scrap sunken ships for the steel dollar worth. Historic fighting ships have been torn to pieces for this end and most are war graves for the men that went down with their ships giving their lives for their countries only to have their graves desecrated because of greed so more cheap throw away junk can be made for consumers to buy.
I'm just gonna say, if it so happens that an expedition gets started, and you happen to get invited for it, that better be fully documented on here xD
Hahaha that’s the dream!
New Calum, let's get into there.
Ten Years ago I took a trip round Scotland with the express purpose of going to as many distilleries as possible. Out of all the many single malts I tasted, Talisker was by far my least favourite. Just thought I'd drop that bombshell. :)
It can be hit or miss. Raasay is better (because I make it)
If the Snow Cruiser is found if it’s a even able to be lifted ( it weighs 75k lbs) it would be absolutely priceless
Enjoyed the video but couldn't help but notice the whiskey was not touched.
I really hope they didn't abandon the Beech Staggerwing. That thing is super cool. I'm hoping one day I'll get to fly one
No I mention in the video, it’s being restored!
@@CalumRaasay yep I know that I think it’s super cool it’s being restored here in NZ too. Hopefully one day I might get the chance to actually fly it
I doubt it but has there been ANY updates about this? If so, I would love another video on it.
Your channel is SO FUCKING GOOD!
Wouldn't the mouse heavy tank and TOG 2 be a better comparison then the char b.
Why you would not test it in Alaska on the same continent to see how it handles on snow and ice? What a bunch of losers.😂😂
It was just discovered. they don't know yet they found it but I am sure it is the Snow Cruiser.
Totally off-topic, but nice Nikonos and Pentax 6x7 in the background!
Haha nothings off topic for this video! I actually have a Nikonos III as well. Definatley a video i want to make in the future!
Too early to try and find it leave it for a few thousand years so some historian can find it or pieces of it and try to put together what it was and why and how did people of the time make it or was it aliens.
Great videos, I'm really enjoying them. I worked for a company called FMC in the 70's. One product they made was something similar to the snow cruiser and I only saw a photo and description. It looked about the same size as the snow cruiser and I only remember a couple things about it. It had giant wheels perhaps 6-10 feet in diameter but they were very low pressure 3-5 psi and they were designed for minimal damage to permafrost or the tundra. Part of the advertisement showed the giant vehicle rolling over a human being without injury. I remember seeing the photo. I've googled all over and can't find anything on this vehicle. Part of FMC was a division called ESD that eventually became an independent separate company.
ESD was know for building one of a kind strange machines, such as the first automated postal sorter, a pepper picker, an automated system for assembling the 3 1/2 inch floppy disk, automated warehouses, coal mining machines and underwater living units. I worked on some very unusual coal mining machines which were called mobile roof supports.
Are you talking about the Rolligon perhaps?
@@CalumRaasay I think that's closer but not quite. I jogged my memory and I think this vehicle was used in the Alaska Pipe Line construction as like a hauler of equipment, even pipe segments. It was massive about the size of the snow cruiser.
You’re video about the snow cruiser was in my Recommended list and I thought I’m going to watch it because it looks weird
Well I like this video and last video about it. I wish I was rich so I could find it but I’m not rich, I live in Australia and I’m only 17
Interesting video. I have to admit that I often forget to take into an account the fact that tings obvious to us, were not so obvious years in the past. I now wonder if in the future there will be a guy watching youtube videos on space travel and comment something along" this is so obvious they should use...".
Also, I guess I am lucky this video was on my to watch list. May I ask why did you unlist it?
I first saw reference to this years ago in a Clive Cussler novel. Thank you for sharing. Have a blessed day.
That's where I heard of it too, glad to see more info on it is getting put out there.
heya buddy, love your content... Keep up the good work
Thanks!
yeah why would you want to find the 45 warship when you could find a awsome vehicle
Clive Cussler wrote a book about the snow cruiser it was fiction but interesting 🤔
I had a sailplane instructor that was...ready...get ready...he was one of the Test Pilots on the Stagger Wing Beechcraft! Eddie was his name.
You made mention of the ice breaker Edisto as an army vessel. Ouch. It was U S Navy, then U S Coast Guard. This comment from a coastie.
You present very good, informative vids on some now obscure bits of history. I look forward to showing these to a neighbor who worked Antarctica stations for Navy.
The push to deploy the snow cruiser was a great, much publicized hurry-up-and-fail. Snow junket.
I wonder if one of the nuclear subs has spotted it on the ocean floor :)
Wonder what whiskey that is? :)
It is one of those things that beg the question " just because you can ? "
TOG II* is slightly shorter and slightly shorter in height but wider then the Char 2C tank. It's 10 tons heavier though at 80 logn tons. If I win the lottery which is unlikely because I don't buy lottery tickets I will fund your expedition.
IF it wasn't abraded away/crushed by the chunk's movements, they will likely find it upside down at the bottom. Whilst the balloon tires wouldn't be enough to keep it afloat, it would be enough to force it heavy part down (assuming, they were still inflated). That means that it's likely crushed (much like other things that fell in such a manner, be they planes, boats).
Good video:) Cheers mate:)
Thank you!
Dirk Pitt found the Snow Cruiser... read Atlantis Found by Clive Cussler for an alternate ending to the Snow Cruiser's fate, you'll get a good laugh.
1. design a snowcruiser
2. build the snowcruiser with living suite and scientific gadgets
3. ship it to antarctrica
4. realize that slick tires dont work on snow while your snowcruiser is stuck after rolling off the ramp;
I first discovered the snow cruiser in the mid 80s in an article from a car club called NNN National Nastalgic Nova..
A few years later author Clive Cussler incorporated it into one of his novels, (he had a habit of that).....there were several other articles I came accross purely by chance....Its sad & a testament to the great waist our government does with tax dollars.....all they had to do was move it over some solid land & park it...or better yet ship it home.....maybe it would still be with us today instead of rotting on the seabed....I venture to bet with a real set of snow tires it would have performed admirably
As they say a rush job is never finish. That is why the Snow Cruiser Failed. They never had time to find and fix faulty design problems
What the hell, i decided just yesterday to re-watch the previous Snow cruiser video.
You really dragged this out. Quit.
There are historically very few staggewings here in New Zealand. Possibly 2 have been here in my lifetime and none that I know of before I was born
I think there are technically no significant differences when it comes to moving in Arctic or Antarctic terrain. Therefore, I would say the best experts to ask about tansportation in Antarctica would not have been the people who tried and failed there, but would have been those who made it in the Arctic. Therefore, the real experts were more likely to be in the Soviet Union.
Late to comment but I wonder if the idea of underinflating the tires when stuck in soft snow was something they thought of back then? One of the images of the ASC on snow looked like one set of tires at the front were underinflated maybe? Or did Poulter and his team discuss that when the ASC got on solid ice (as often found in the middle of the Antartic) that the tires would need to be more fully inflated?
Calum I replied to your FB Message regarding our Staggerwing restoration project.
Imagine someone will find this cruiser after 1000 years or more in perfect condition.
I suspect that a set of snow chains might have made a difference.
they tried them and it didnt
Talisker whiskey made by the sea in Skye