Back in the very early 60's, I was in a Corporal Missile unit in Germany.
Our missile transporter was made by LeTorneau (sp?) and it was powered by a
tank engine which drove AC & DC generators. Motive power was furnished by
electric motors built inside each of the wheel hubs. The driver controlled
this thing with a joystick-- the steering was done with electric motors,
too. Normally it would do about 45mph but unscrewing some resistors in the
field current supply allowed this monster to reach about 60. It was
intimidating as hell to have one pass you on a narrow road, especially if
you were in a VW.
I wonder if that was one of those Ford Ford engines. As I remember, it was
air- cooled.
Regards, Neil Tucson, AZ
-----Original Message-----
From: Nafzger [mailto:nafzger@vtc.net]
Sent: Monday, November 05, 2001 8:20 PM
To: ardunbill@webtv.net; Richard Fox; land-speed@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: What's Up?
Rich,
I went back east in Sept. and one of the things I did was spend some time
with my favorite uncle who was commander of a tank destroyer battalion in
WWII. He finished the war in a MK 18 tank destroyer which was powered by one
of those Ford motors. He said the earlier ones he had were powered by two
"Jimmie" diesels and had more power but would not start reliably in those
cold winters in Europe.
The Ford gas engine solved that so they would not be sitting ducks under
attack and couldn't get started.
Howard
----- Original Message -----
From: <ardunbill@webtv.net>
To: "Richard Fox" <v4gr@rcn.com>; <land-speed@autox.team.net>
Sent: Monday, November 05, 2001 7:50 PM
Subject: Re: What's Up?
> Rich, just saw a reference to your Ford V8 tank engine in my Ford
> Aviation Legacy book previously mentioned. Says Ford's original
> intention was a V12 Aero engine to improve on the Allison and RR Merlin
> of the day, but the govt. wanted a V8 tank engine instead, so Ford went
> that way. The book states that some 25,000 of these tank engines were
> made. You have some, you said Don Ferguson had or has some, I wonder
> what happened to all the rest of them? Even to scrap them would have
> cost money for dismantling. And who'd ever want to scrap such a nice
> piece of equipment? Cheers Bill
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