Military hardware design programs often have code names that are random or nearly so, so you can’t figure out what they are if you overhear them. Concepts like “Have Blue” or “Copper Canyon” or “Science Dawn” or even “Silver Bug” are pretty opaque. But every now and then there are concepts like Avro Canada’s 1960 idea for a truck capable of carrying and launching two Minuteman ICBMs: “Big Wheel.” For once, the name matched the product.
One wonders what sort of career these might have had in the Monster Truck circuit after they became obsolete.
This is a document I scored off ebay a little while back; it arrived and I’ve scanned it and will include it in the very next APR Patreon catalog. If you’d like a copy, a monthly contribution of as little as $4 will get you the full-rez 300 dpi scan of each months reward documents and diagrams… currently, three documents, one large-format diagram or piece of artwork. That’s a buck an item. Give the APR Patreon a look.
This critter is even more huge than the La Tourneau’s “Land-Train,” that was constructed to haul equipment form Fairbanks to Sagwon airstrip…a huge gravel bed set up for transports to land on, to supply the North Slope, Alaska during construction of the Alaska Pipeline. I wuz there, and shot many of the aircraft used in that airlift.. L-100s, DC-4s, 6s, Connies, and other planes hauled cargo faster than the Land-Train could travel over the Tundra! The other Army version I believe was used in Greenland, or at Ft. Wainwright or Fort Greely, Alaska; possibly used in conjunction with classified underground research facilities-again, I wuz there too, but never saw the darn thing, but have photos. I know not if it is still in Greenland or no. I did see the blood-red Cat-Trains that supplied Camp Century-the underground nuclear powered facility north of Thule AB.
Send a price to purchase this historical doc.
Can this be obtained as a single item, without doing the Patreon thing?
I’m an 8+ patron. I’ll wait for this ítem in the next catalog…
Thanks Scott