The engineering challenges were great, but by December 1915 the first completed tank prototype, “Little Willie” was constructed. The Landship Committee was composed mainly of naval officers, politicians and engineers. Tank design in England gained an unexpected ally when Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty, established the Landship Committee to develop a “land vehicle that could sail over terrain like a ship on water”. Once again, most ideas did not develop to working models. The development of a reliable combustion engine, continuous tract for use in agriculture tractors and steel plating for ships provided all three critical ingredients lacking until the 20th Century.ĭuring WWI, both the British and French independently began to actively develop armored fight vehicles. While necessity is often the mother of invention, optimal timing is also vital. Over the years, many designs and prototypes of armored wagons and tracked vehicles were proposed and abandoned. Wells included one in his short story “The Land Ironclads”. Leonardo Da Vinci created a design for an armored self-propelled vehicle and H.G. Colonel Jean Baptiste Estienne, 24 August 1914Īs with most inventions, the origins of the tank are long and convoluted while capturing the fascination. “Victory in this war will belong to the belligerent who is the first to put a cannon on a vehicle capable of moving on all kinds of terrain”
0 kommentar(er)
