El Mamerro Posted February 7, 2008 Share Posted February 7, 2008 This thing was fucking awesome. The Russian Lebedenko or "Tsar Tank", is without doubt the most strange Armoured Fighting vehicle ever constructed. It should, however, not be dismissed purely as another hare-brained scheme, but must be seen against the backdrop of the early tank development that was taking place at this time, and that in all countries was very experimental, and leading to many curious and non-functional designs. The history of the Lebedenko starts in 1914 with the engineer N. Lebedenko, who was at that point employed in a private firm, that worked for the Russian War Department, designing artillery devices. Lebedenko himself, with the aid of N. Zhukovskiy and his nephews, B. Stechkin and A. Mikulin, came up with the idea (originally thought as a sort of enlarged gun-carriage) of a motordriven battle machine, weighing some 40 tons, running on one small double-wheel, and two very large spoked wheels, almost 9 meter in diameter, in a tri-cycle arrangement. The big wheels were attached to the hull, shaped like a tuning-fork, which tapered down to the double wheel, mounted in the rear, which provided the means for steering the vehicle. The designers hoped that this original configuration would make it possible for the vehicle to cross practically all obstacles. They initially called the vehicle Nepotir, but came to be known as the Lebedenko, after the designer. (Sometimes it was nicknamed "The Tsar ", after the financier.) But who would finance this project? A small working wooden model of the Nepotir was made, driven by a spring motor taken from a gramophone. Then the model was demonstrated to Tsar Nikolaj, who was much impressed when the toy made it across some scale obstacles, i.e. a number of thick books. He promptly ordered the designers to go ahead with the project, and allocated the needed funds himself. Construction of the full-scale Lebedenko started. The drive assembly consisted of two 240 hp Maybach engines, one for each big wheel. The wheels themselves (designed by Zhukovskiy) had a T-shaped metal mid-section. A wooden overlay was then fastened to the shelf of the T-beam. The drive itself was very simple. Each engine drove an automobile wheels, who was in it�s turn pressed down (by means of a railway carriage spring) until it touched the wooden overlay of the big wheel, and by counterrotating, the automobile wheel transferred the energy from the engine to the big running wheel. (In case of over-heating, the driving wheels disengaged and protected the engine from seizing.) It was thought that the Nepotir should be able to reach a top speed of some 17 km/h � which was pretty impressive compared to other WW1 AFV:s. The hull of the vehicle would have one top-mounted centrally placed turret, equipped with MG:s and/or light cannons, giving the Lebedenko a total height of some 12 meters. In addition to this, at the outer flanks of the hull, small MG sponsons was to be placed. There was also a small weapons turret placed underneath the belly of the beast. The construction progressed pretty quick and at the end of July 1915, the Nepotir was ready for it�s first trials. Because of it�s weight and size, it was designed to be transported in sub-assemblies, to be assembled again before action at the front (like it was later envisioned for the huge German K-Wagen). This procedure was followed, and the sub-assemblies were transported to the testing ground, some 60 km from Moscow. At the re-assembly it was found out that the weight of the machine exceeded calculations with some 50%, due to the use of thicker metal. In August the test began in front of a high commission. It started well. The vehicle moved well over some firm ground, crashed a tree, but then went into a soft patch, where the small double wheel got stuck in a ditch. Soon it was obvious that the engines were to small, as they were unable to free the rear double wheel. After this fiasco, two of the designers, Mikulin and Stechkin, worked on equipping the vehicle with more powerful engines, but this plan was never fulfilled. The military had decided against the project. It was simply too expensive, it had thus far cost some 250.000 roubles. Also the vehicle (and then primarily it�s wheels) was deemed to be too vulnerable to artillery fire, which probably was quite true. (And by this time both France and Britain were near to completing new types of all-terrain armoured fighting vehicles, running on caterpillar tracks.) The Lebedenko stood there, bogged down, for the rest of the war, but was finally scrapped in 1923. I don't know how the hell anybody would've thought this thing could possibly work, but that's awesome they went for it. If it really did work I'm certain everyone else involved in WWI would've been like "Fuck this, I'm out". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spitfire15 Posted February 7, 2008 Share Posted February 7, 2008 Im sure that bitch would have worked too and balled out of control on the trench line but guess who came along and ruined the fun.. COMMUNISTS They always ruin everything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the_gooch Posted February 7, 2008 Share Posted February 7, 2008 wow, that thing is nuts! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ski Mask Posted February 7, 2008 Share Posted February 7, 2008 yeah. no shit mams. if I'm a muddy trench dwelling infantryman and I see this giant, armoured, raised shooting platform moving towards me, I'm gonna be out as fast as possible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schnitzel Posted February 7, 2008 Share Posted February 7, 2008 one explosion near those spokes though and the whole thing is useless Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EGG Posted February 7, 2008 Share Posted February 7, 2008 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Mamerro Posted February 7, 2008 Author Share Posted February 7, 2008 one explosion near those spokes though and the whole thing is useless I'm saying, this thing is all kinds of retarded, and it STILL got built. It's got its own fucking guns pointing at its wheels. But I still would've shat a brick if that thing showed up to fight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-Rage- Posted February 7, 2008 Share Posted February 7, 2008 Three words... Burning Man 2008. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Mamerro Posted February 7, 2008 Author Share Posted February 7, 2008 I know, seriously! There's been some similar craziness going on, but it's not as large and nowhere near as retarded. I should start drawing up plans. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hatetown Posted February 7, 2008 Share Posted February 7, 2008 throw some Daytons on that bitch.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-TORN- Posted February 8, 2008 Share Posted February 8, 2008 And we havent seen a modern day version of this thing why? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-Rage- Posted February 8, 2008 Share Posted February 8, 2008 I know, seriously! I should start drawing up plans. Well Jim and I have been wanting to go to BM for a while. If you build some shit like that, we're there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shitting Posted February 8, 2008 Share Posted February 8, 2008 for some strange reason i've seen photos of and read about that thing before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CALIgula Posted February 8, 2008 Share Posted February 8, 2008 fuck 26 inch rims... im tryin to get them new tsar rims! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rushawn wuan Posted February 8, 2008 Share Posted February 8, 2008 fuck 26 inch rims... im tryin to get them new tsar rims! damn nigga you stole my post Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CALIgula Posted February 8, 2008 Share Posted February 8, 2008 haha...my bad rush... great minds think alike tho. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rushawn wuan Posted February 8, 2008 Share Posted February 8, 2008 its all good. we could ride back to back, i'll dip mine in chrome and would only leave two gold spokes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shitting Posted February 8, 2008 Share Posted February 8, 2008 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CALIgula Posted February 8, 2008 Share Posted February 8, 2008 id get the tzar daytons....with the spinner in the middle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
c-walk Posted February 8, 2008 Share Posted February 8, 2008 i remember watching some show about idiotic military weapons and the russians tried to use this sound wave gun to make their enemies heads explode durring WWi shit was silly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CALIgula Posted February 8, 2008 Share Posted February 8, 2008 dont they use those for riot control??....the sound wave thingy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hatetown Posted February 8, 2008 Share Posted February 8, 2008 id get the tzar daytons....with the spinner in the middle. thats what i was sayin THROW SOME D'S ON THAT BITCH :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-TORN- Posted February 9, 2008 Share Posted February 9, 2008 THROW A LAME SONG ON THAT BITCH :rolleyes: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IOU Posted February 9, 2008 Share Posted February 9, 2008 dont they use those for riot control??....the sound wave thingy. I think that 'safe' weapon is already in use. There is a lot of research going into what sound waves can do to people. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hatetown Posted February 9, 2008 Share Posted February 9, 2008 THROW A LAME SONG ON THAT BITCH :rolleyes: Keep quiet, tampon boy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
awkward eye Posted February 9, 2008 Share Posted February 9, 2008 First time I've seen that. Cool design, bad idea for war though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CALIgula Posted February 9, 2008 Share Posted February 9, 2008 I think that 'safe' weapon is already in use. There is a lot of research going into what sound waves can do to people. yeah...i remember theo and cacash talking about it in a thread once. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rushawn wuan Posted February 9, 2008 Share Posted February 9, 2008 i saw a little about it on the history channel. i think i was a modern marvel episode but it could of also been on the discovery chanel on in a "future weapons" episode. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hayabusa Posted February 9, 2008 Share Posted February 9, 2008 those giant wheels look like theyd make a great target Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
!@#$% Posted February 9, 2008 Share Posted February 9, 2008 holy shit that thing looks awesome. totally impractical, but awesome nonetheless. i agree people would've been shitting themselves if they'd encountered it on the battlefield. it;s like an AT AT walker or something. on another note, two tank threads in one day? :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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