OKAY i think the funniest thing i've learned so far was the hilariously impractical "snow cruiser" that america decided to make their antarctic debut with in the late 1930s
this fucker weighed 75,000 pounds and was like 18 feet wide. thing was the size of like excavation equipment. it was meant to be a self-contained mobile research station with that could sleep up to 8 people and came with a kitchen, airplane bathroom, and other amenities and equipment for people working in the field. seemed vaguely practical, right?
[snorts a line of cocaine] LET'S PUT A FUCKING PLANE ON IT.
the idea here was that they could offload the plane with a winch and conduct aerial surveys with it. not a bad idea in theory, but it really cemented this vehicle's sheer excess.
so, how did it perform in the field? well...
"where are the treads for our tires?"
that's right, this vehicle had smooth, treadless, balloon tires. granted this was the late '30s but still, it was known by that point that tires needed treads to be worth a damn!
it faced problems immediately. first, it broke the ramp off of the ship with its sheer mass, and then once it was finally offloaded, the first thing it did was sink into the snow, spinning its wheels and getting nowhere. amazingly, its crew did manage to get it moving, by applying chains to the tires and driving backwards.
backwards? yes, backwards. for some reason, it got better grip by driving backwards, so during its very brief service life, it drove somewhere around 90 miles entirely in reverse. i am not even kidding.
the vehicle was ultimately abandoned and ended up covered in several feet of snow and ice. nobody really knows where it is today - some say it's at the bottom of the south sea, others think the soviets nabbed it. personally i think it's buried beneath hundreds of feet of ice, its interior in almost pristine condition
janainaart
turnnoffyourmind
dailybridgerton
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