European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 10, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse A passion for weird and wondrous vehicles its been Back to the drawing Board Many Slmaa Tor military designers. Above la a 1969photo of Antral electrics Quot quadruped. A at right la a 1942eight-wheel forerunner of a hum Vaa. Or rus a a a a Myr a v a of a it. A t �?~1 a a a v i. A. A r i r v. -1 f o i i i v c v1 / a a v sea log i Mote r ? i a a by by Vince Crawley staff writer How about a 10-ton armoured dragster with a top end of More than 75 Mph or maybe a propeller driven Arctic sled powered by a 320 horsepower Lycoming aircraft engine and whatever happened to those mechanical walkers and rocket powered backpacks that were supposed to Lope and leap across future battlefields for the answers to these and other questions about the Pentagon s quest for fighting hardware just ask Fred Crismon. A retired army officer and car Buff his obsession with military vehicles turned into two books and a collection of More than 20,000 pictures culled from archives and attics across the Globe. Crismon admits that sales Arentt exactly brisk for his two volume history of . Wheeled and tracked vehicles. A it would be Boring to a person unless you actually care about it Quot said Crismon who lives in Pitburg Germany. Mis readers tend to be armchair historians or people who restore old military vehicles. He was of course a vehicle maintenance officer in his Active duty Days and making Money was t the Point As he travelled through his 25-year-military career with a camera always at hand snapping shots of whatever Odd conveyance crossed his path. A genealogist of the motor Pool his books map out the family Trees of the american military Fleet beginning with the first attempts to mount machine guns onto horseless carriages before the turn of the Century and ending with photos and specs on Abrams tanks Bradley infantry vehicles and humvee. Along the Way Are hundreds of variations on jeeps and enough world War ii photos to Arm a second invasion of Normandy. But it s the footnote vehicles the dead ends near misses and endless tinkering by Backstop designers that make for some of the most fascinating browsing. For instance Back in 1979 army research techs souped up a straight laced old m-113 armoured personnel Carrier in order to see just How fast a tracked vehicle can go. Quot although the correlation Between running a personnel Carrier very fast on a surfaced Road and determining its combat survivability would seem to be fuzzy at Best Quot Crismon writes Quot it certainly was a lot of the Stock Model of the 113, the one that soldiers Are familiar with can usually nudge the speedometer just above 40 Mph with a 6-Cylinder, 215-horsepower Gumc Detroit diesel under the Hood. The fast track version dubbed the hot pod sported two Chrysler 440 cubic Inch v-8s. A favorite among the muscle car crowd in the �?T60s, each 440 cranked out More than 350 unruffled horsepower. The engine compartment Hatch was bolted open to act As a Hood scoop. Another air scoop plus a Roll bar were mounted up top behind the cockpit. The twin 440s were actually stuffed in the rear Crew compartment and the Back Hatch was removed and replaced by two enormous radiators. The thing clocked 75.76 Mph in a test run Over a gravel Road at fort Knox ky., in september 1979, beating by 5 Mph a record set by a tracked vehicle during the 1940s, the identity of which has been lost to history. Nobody recorded what kind of fuel mileage the hot Rod got. The Quot Kee Bird Quot was named after an old joke popular in Arctic circles. Purportedly the northernmost Bird in the world is the Kee Bird whose plaintive Call goes something like Quot Kee. Keep. Keep Rice it s the idea was to go tooling around Arctic environs at High Speed and to accomplish this the Kee Bird acted that souped up Para Onnal Carrier topped 75 Mph in 1979. Somewhat like an air plane in reverse. Because Arctic Snow surfaces tend to be rough and glazed Over the runners of the 320-horsepower sled were designed to slice through the crust and ride 6 to 12 inches below the surface. The thing did Fly so to speak. Top Speed was 65 Mph on the surface about 40 Mph with the runners Quot submerged Quot in the Snow. During one test in the late 50s, the steering Cable snapped. Even after the sled Pilot Cut Power the Kee Bird coasted some three or four Miles across the wasteland before sliding to a $30,000 sled was judged a Success. Still the military decided it had no pressing need to go on Sleigh rides at interstate Highway speeds so none were fielded. But the idea remains popular in Siberia and the russian Steppes where several versions Are reportedly in regular use. In aliens actress Sigourney Weaver used a futuristic walking machine to Duke it out to the death with the extraterrestrial she creature. But in 1969 the army actually built a Quot quadruped walking machine Quot designed to crawl around on All fours. Resembling a pickup truck on stilts the Walker was photographed romping around various laboratories and apparently it worked. Using a technology called the cybernetic Anthrop amorphous machine system thus creating a new acronym cams the 11-foot-tall beast weighed 1 it tons and used machinery and electronics to mimic the movements of the Quot Drivers Quot arms and legs. The system relied on feed Back and therein Lay its downfall. In order to Grope its Way across rough terrain the quadruped would Quot feel Quot its Way by exerting pressure on the Driver s controls. How much Doaa Fred Crismon Ilka military vehicles enough to write two books collect20,000photographs and keep on searching. This Way the Driver would know what the Metal feet were touching. But it proved too exhausting. Quot it required far too much concentration coordination and response Between Man and machine and the Man tired very quickly Quot Crismon explains. The project , but in the mid 80s a California based firm was reportedly working on an unmanned radio controlled version that resembles a six legged spider. Jet powered backpacks Are another idea that works in theory and they re occasionally spotted in the skies above High visibility events like the super bowl half time. Tests of the Jet flying Belt began in 1960 and were largely successful. But it gets somewhere close to Zero Miles to the gallon allowing the backpacking Pilot to zoom aloft for no More than half a minute. This coupled with the terrific Cloud of dust and Jet exhaust led the military to stick with air planes and helicopters. As a child during world War ii Crismon recalls driving with his father in the family car and frequently getting stopped when military convoys clogged the highways the Kee Bird was judged a Alec Eye but no More were Ever built the High powered sled developed in the late 1950a, could hit 60 Mph on an Arctic now Field. Why any one would need it is unclear. Around Louisville. By. Quot no matter where you were Thero was an excellent Chance you a get stopped by a Convoy Quot Crismon said. Quot my dad hated it and i loved later when the War ended and Detroit resumed churning out new cars instead of jeeps and tanks Crismon became one of those car buffs who can spot a make and Model from a Quarter mile away. When he enlisted in the army in 1958, he discover that world War ii technical manuals were still in the Supply system and As a Supply clerk he began ordering everything he could get his hands on. By the late �?~60s, he discovered that his collection of tech manuals and photographs had become one of the largest in the country including Quot three or four tons of automobile literature from All Over the in 1980, he was approached by one of those companies that publishes Coffee table books like the Plymouth Desoto Story and Ford trucks since 1905. The meeting resulted in Crismond a 460-Page history of . Military wheeled vehicles. Almost All photos and captions it was printed in 1983 and All 6,000 copies have sold netting him $2 a copy. The companion volume tracked vehicles came out this year. Perhaps amazingly the retired motor officer has never owned a military vehicle of his own. Quot i Tell my wife Judy that when i do get one it s going to be one that makes the ground rumble Quot to said. In the meantime he spends his Days prowling through the archives contractors and government offices occasionally railing against librarians who toss out the yellowed military manuals that he considers priceless. He figures his lifelong obsession for collecting old photos and vehicle statistics won t end Quot until i die of old age or get hit by an army . Military wheeled vehicles costs $34.95, and military tracked vehicles Coats $39 95 both a a available from motor books International . Box 2, 729 Prospect ave Osceola Wise. 54020 Page 14 the stars and stripes tuesday november 10, 1992 the stars and stripes Page 1
