Tsar Tank

The Tsar Tank (Russian: Царь-танк, transcription: Tsar-tank), also known as the Netopyr' (Russian: Нетопырь) which stands for Pipistrellus (a genus of bat) or Lebedenko Tank (Russian: танк Лебеденко), was an unusual Russian armoured vehicle developed by Nikolai Lebedenko, Nikolay Yegorovich Zhukovsky, Boris Stechkin, and Alexander Mikulin from 1914 onwards. The project was scrapped in 1915 after initial tests deemed the vehicle to be underpowered and vulnerable to artillery fire. It has become known among industrial design students as a catastrophic failure of engineering without proper consideration to design.

Tsar Tank
The Tsar Tank
Place of origin Russian Empire
Service history
In service1914–1915 (experimental)
Used by Russian Empire

History

It differed from modern tanks in that it did not use caterpillar tracks—rather, it used a tricycle design. The two front spoked wheels were nearly 9 metres (30 ft) in diameter; the rear-mounted third wheel was only 1.5 metres (5 ft) high. The upper cannon turret reached a height of nearly 8 metres (26 ft). The hull was 12 metres (39 ft) wide with two more cannon in sponsons. Additional weapons were also planned under the belly. Each wheel was powered by a 240 hp Maybach engine.[1]

The huge wheels were intended to cross significant obstacles. However, due to miscalculations of the weight, the rear wheel was prone to getting stuck in soft ground and ditches, and the front wheels were sometimes insufficient to pull it out. This led to a fiasco of tests before the high commission in August 1915. The tank remained in the location where it was tested, some 60 kilometres (37 mi) from Moscow until 1923 when it was finally taken apart for scrap.

Model of the Tsar tank

References
  1. Zaloga, Steven J; Grandsen, James (1984). Soviet Tanks and Combat Vehicles of World War Two. Arms and Armour Press. p. 27. ISBN 0-85368-606-8.
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