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| Anyone know what the Navy would have used this for? |
(Incidentally, the lines of this tractor were penned by Raymond Loewy, the man who drew the future.)
Saturday, August 03, 2013
Squid tractor.
(Incidentally, the lines of this tractor were penned by Raymond Loewy, the man who drew the future.)
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Towing aircraft, APU carts, etc around airfields.
Randy's guess is my guess.
(Or if Randy isn't guessing, "Randy's answer would have been my guess.")
They were also used on the first Gen. angle deck Carriers For the same work. When they wore out they got a last ride on the steam cat. The ocean bottom must be littered with 'em.---Ray
In addition to moving aircraft and auxiliary equipment, they were also used as farm tractors.
Bet they had a few at Crane.
They were also used to pull the warehouse wagon trains, delivering to the different units from the TMO and stores.
We had several regular warehouse tractors in the motor pool that were a armor plated version. Picture that tractor with 1/2 steel plate welded to the front and sides.
They also had some at Fac Maintnence equipped with mowers to take care of the Generals parade area. The only grass at 29 Palms.
Seabees would use them for general tractoring purposes (grading runways, moving equipment, pulling stumps, etc) Airedales use them to move airplanes, start carts, large parts, and ordinance, and they're also used to launch and recover boats.
Now THAT was a Wikiwander that was fun! Today's post followed through the net to the guy who designed my first and favorite (but alas, no longer in the family) '47 Farmall A. The gas cap on which was stamped in raised "Buy clean fuel. Keep it clean."
And the origin of the post reminded me of three summers prior to the first Gulf war, mowing many a field with an all-yellow Air Force livery John Deere & 6-foot mower deck. Peaceful days when that's all you do, all day long.
WV today is "manytam".
The page was slow to load on my computer and, for quite some time, would not scroll below the phrase "Squid Tractor" and a bit of blue sky in the photo.
This left me wondering what a squid tractor might look like, and I conclude that it must look like a chicken tractor only suitable for use underwater.
Imagine my disappointment when I was finally able to scroll down and look at the picture...
gvi
IIRC, Carrier types used different tires, for better traction.
The tires on that one look new, it may have had different style tires when it was in use.
All of the above are pretty much correct. On the carriers they had truck tires rather than tractor tires. That one is actually missing the front pintle hook which should be bolted on at the bottom of the radiator.
While Ray was drawing the Lazy S on the hood of the Studebaker, my uncle Gene was figuring out how to get a horsepower per cubic inch out of that leaky old 289. Theres's a picture of uncle Gene and Loewy around the house somewhere.
Old NFO: With a hole through the pintle mount, to accept a hand crank that latched into two tapered lugs on the front of the damper pulley. Uncle Sugar wasn't all that certain about those newfangled electric starter things.
If I ever get any disposable income again I intend to build a model of Loewy's flying boat, and see if I can get it to fly. Now that Cox is gone, I'll have to go big with it, as the smallest model airplane motors these days are rather large, and that airplane had _lots_ of motors on it.
I'm thinking that you're imagining Norman Bel Geddes' Airliner #4? That had at least 20 engines on it. I don't know if Loewy had anything to do with the design, but it was in the same vein.
The smallest model airplane motors these days are very small indeed and very, very light.
http://www.microflight.com/Online-Catalog/Ready-to-Fly-Airplanes/Micro-Butterfly-RTF-Set
Electricity: the wave of the future.
;)
And I realize this isn't a tractor, but ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayovPr_WjSM
while a Reserve Center CO in the 80's the Navy sent me a brand-new John Deere about that same size with a deck mower attachment; the JD green painted over in "Don't Lose Me", which eventually flaked off in many places leaving a rather...interesting paint scheme.
I always thought Syd Mead was the man who drew the future.
Ancient, Du hast recht. I always confuse those Art Deco guys in my head. No electric motors, though, we want to hear the droning of the IC motors to get the full effect.
I wonder if that thing would actually fly stably. Bel Geddes never built a model and tried to fly it, with masses distributed as in the full-size one.
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