Posted on 02/12/2021 12:58:42 PM PST by Onthebrink
One of the lesser-known tanks of the Second World War is the M22 Locust, a small, three-man tank that was intended to fly with airborne troops and augment their firepower on the ground.
M22 Locust: A History
In order to keep up with troops in the air, it was assumed that a small tank should be towed behind an airplane inside a glider. And while technically feasible, it required an especially small tank to be designed that would have both light armor and a decidedly light main gun.
(Excerpt) Read more at 19fortyfive.com ...
Sure be nice if you just posted the article here instead of trolling for hits. I’d probably find a lot of your articles interesting, but out of principle I won’t go to your site, you post often and try to garner hits shamelessly.
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It wasn’t a ‘flying tank.’ The Soviets actually built one of those.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonov_A-40
It was designed to fit in a glider. It failed because it wasn’t a particularly useful tank - light armor, puny gun, etc.
Interesting story!!
Thanks for posting!!
I clicked it for you. You’re welcome.
And they built the flying equivalent of a tank in the IL-2, as well.
Or the Sheridan.
JMO, YMMV
Imagine the tank crew - you are in a small, lightly armored tank that is delivered to the battlefield by a glider. Just imagining being in a situation like that should make one gasp.
The US finally DID build a “flying tank”, the A-10 Thunderbolt II or as it was more popularly known, the Warthog.
https://www.military.com/equipment/a-10-thunderbolt-ii
One of the best close-air-support airplanes ever built.
A fearsome sight for any enemy foot soldier as it comes in about fifty feet off the deck at 350 knots. And knocks out a tank that is six miles away over the horizon.
as did the Krauts with the Hs-129
I want one.
I like those symmetric stress risers in the fuselage skin between each frame as the whole glider is distorted as the tank rolls out.
The machine in the second picture is a British Tetrarch, which the Locust was supposed to replace.
The Russians had a different idea. Why waste the materials on a fuselage? Just put the wings and tail on the tank istelf.
It only flew once...
It’s a baby tank!
Interesting to read of some of the experiments that are tried with war machines. Randomly stumbled into a YouTube video the other day that talked about a 1960’s era design for a flying nuclear powered aircraft carrier called the CL-1201!
This behemoth was to have been designed to carry some 20 aircraft, nuclear missiles, and was supposed to have a laser to shoot down incoming missiles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7KgjObskvM
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