1939 Snow Cruiser for Antarctic exploration complete with bush...

[AACA Library]

1939 Snow Cruiser for Antarctic exploration complete with bush plane

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[alsancle]

The sno cruiser is cool. Too bad it was a bad design.

Here is a video of it in action on pavement:

[alsancle]

Newly published video on the Snow Cruiser.

 

 

[JV Puleo]

My grandmother always said that her brother had built the radios for the Byrd expedition. I took that with a grain of salt — it isn't like she knew anything about building radios but after she died we found some 8x10 photos in her papers of radio controls with a note on the back in my late uncle's handwriting saying "the radio controls I built for Admiral Byrd." My uncle was a very early electrician and supposedly installed the first electric porch light in New London, Connecticut. My grandmother told me that, for a while, a small crown would gather on the street in front of the house at dusk to see the light go on!

[1939_Buick]

Wikpedia --> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antarctic_Snow_Cruiser

 

Quote

 

The Antarctic Snow Cruiser was a vehicle designed from 1937 to 1939 under the direction of Thomas Poulter, intended to facilitate transport in Antarctica during the United States Antarctic Service Expedition (1939–41).[1] The Snow Cruiser was also known as "The Penguin," "Penguin 1" or "Turtle"[2] in some published material.

Poulter had been second in command of Byrd's Second Antarctic Expedition, launched in 1934. From his time in the Antarctic, Poulter had devised several innovative features. The massive Snow Cruiser generally failed to operate as hoped under the difficult conditions (the tires, notably smooth to avoid becoming snow encrusted, did not grip the ice) and was eventually abandoned in Antarctica. Rediscovered under a deep layer of snow in 1958, it later disappeared again due to shifting ice conditions.

 

 

Edited January 17, 2022 by 1939_Buick (see edit history)