Inspiration for Steampunk vehicle designers
- Thread starter minimaker
- Start date
A prototype was built but got bogged down when testing. People also realised that it was too vulnerable to artillery. Here is an article on it.
Other countries have also experimented with big wheel designs.
Still, I think it would look great on a wargame table.
Here is another verhicle but this one is fantasy by HG Wells:
http://www.currell.net/models/ironclad.htm
By the way, I believe the modern NATO definition of main battle tank would accept it as a tank since it\'s function based (vehicle primarily designed for assualt under it\'s own power, armour and arnament). Tracks are not a requirement any more (they had problems figuring out where to fit the Italian centauro ). Not sure if at that time it should be seen as tank or armoured car, but if it\'s tank, then the Russians beat the British to building the first one. It predates little Willie.
Other countries have also experimented with big wheel designs.
Still, I think it would look great on a wargame table.
Here is another verhicle but this one is fantasy by HG Wells:
http://www.currell.net/models/ironclad.htm
By the way, I believe the modern NATO definition of main battle tank would accept it as a tank since it\'s function based (vehicle primarily designed for assualt under it\'s own power, armour and arnament). Tracks are not a requirement any more (they had problems figuring out where to fit the Italian centauro
). Not sure if at that time it should be seen as tank or armoured car, but if it\'s tank, then the Russians beat the British to building the first one. It predates little Willie.
Shawn R. L.
New member
I seem to remember there had been some talk during either WW1 or 2 of making ship hulls of ice and sawdust. Apparently they found some combination that could withstand quite a hit. I also heard of a nuclear powered airplane or rocket, cant remember which. What was realised though was that the exhaust from such a thing would be far more damaging than the payload.
Shawn R. L.
New member
My how killing eachother inspires such creativity.
Two projects from the \'60s fit that description. The Orion project was a spacecraft propelled by nuclear bombs detonated outside the spacecraft. The Helios project called used nuclear explosions in a containment chamber within the spacecraft itself. A description of the Orion project is here, a brief description of the Helios projecthere.
Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle used the Orion concept in their joint novel Footfall, pretty nice decription of low-tech, high-orbit dogfighting.
Neither project would work well as steampunk, though.
Sand Rat
New member
Well, the US military experimented with a nuclear powered plane in the late 1950\'s - they mounted the power plant from a nuclear submarine in a B-36 Peacemaker bomber and flew it around to see if the reactor would work or what effects flight would have on the reactor - but thats about as far as it got
