History
In the First World War, the British proposed building "landships" - large (300 tons or more) vehicles capable of crossing the trench systems of the Western Front, and the Landships Committee was formed to investigate these ideas for equipping the Naval Brigades. The impracticality of building such large vehicles and the needs of the British Army for more numerous smaller vehicles led to the much smaller first tanks. However, until after the Second World War, the British would continue to think of tanks in naval terms; e.g., the Cruiser tank operating like the ships of the same name. Quickly proving impractical were the battleship-equivalent heavy tanks, such as the multi-turreted Vickers A1E1 Independent and its assorted offspring. The Russian Tsar Tank, a super-heavy tricycle gun platform, was scrapped after a prototype proved difficult to maneuver and the vehicle was deemed vulnerable to ground fire.
Two super-heavy tanks, the Landkreuzer P. 1000 Ratte and Landkreuzer P. 1500 Monster, were the closest things ever to be designed that approaches the popular fictional conception of a landship. The Maus was the only super-heavy tank built by the Germans in WWII.
Bucket-wheel excavators are the biggest (externally-powered) land vehicles ever built by man, but do not fit into the popular conception of a landship. The largest self-powered land vehicles are NASA's two crawler-transporters.
The Mountbatten class hovercraft is the largest civilian hovercraft ever built, and is capable of traveling over relatively smooth land in addition to water. It is capable of carrying 418 people, and 60 cars. Hovercraft are also used by the military for their amphibious landing capabilities. They are commonly referred to as air-cushioned landing craft. These vehicles are usually very large compared to other land vehicles, and commonly carry other land vehicles like jeeps and armored vehicles.
Read more about this topic: Landship
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Revolutions are the periods of history when individuals count most.”
—Norman Mailer (b. 1923)
“Three million of such stones would be needed before the work was done. Three million stones of an average weight of 5,000 pounds, every stone cut precisely to fit into its destined place in the great pyramid. From the quarries they pulled the stones across the desert to the banks of the Nile. Never in the history of the world had so great a task been performed. Their faith gave them strength, and their joy gave them song.”
—William Faulkner (1897–1962)
“In nature, all is useful, all is beautiful. It is therefore beautiful, because it is alive, moving, reproductive; it is therefore useful, because it is symmetrical and fair. Beauty will not come at the call of a legislature, nor will it repeat in England or America its history in Greece. It will come, as always, unannounced, and spring up between the feet of brave and earnest men.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)