The NASA King Tiger Tank
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- Опубліковано 25 лис 2024
- The story of NASA's secret WWII King Tiger tank project, connected with the Space Shuttle programme. A truly astounding tale!
Special thanks to Patrick Kaufer for suggesting this wonderful topic!
Dr. Mark Felton FRHistS, FRSA, is a well-known British historian, the author of 22 non-fiction books, including bestsellers 'Zero Night' and 'Castle of the Eagles', both currently being developed into movies in Hollywood. In addition to writing, Mark also appears regularly in television documentaries around the world, including on The History Channel, Netflix, National Geographic, Quest, American Heroes Channel and RMC Decouverte. His books have formed the background to several TV and radio documentaries. More information about Mark can be found at: en.wikipedia.o...
Visit my audio book channel 'War Stories with Mark Felton': • One Thousand Miles to ...
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Disclaimer: All opinions and comments expressed in the 'Comments' section do not reflect the opinions of Mark Felton Productions. All opinions and comments should contribute to the dialogue. Mark Felton Productions does not condone written attacks, insults, racism, sexism, extremism, violence or otherwise questionable comments or material in the 'Comments' section, and reserves the right to delete any comment violating this rule or to block any poster from the channel.
Sources:
'NASA built a Tire Assault Vehicle...' by James Gilboy, (The Drive, Nov. 13, 2023)
'CR-990 Tire Assault Vehicle' by Harry Biondo, (The Online Tank Museum, Sept. 8, 2018)
Credits: The National Archives; Library of Congress; NASA; InSapphoWeTrust; Mark.murphy; Michael Rennick
This title is actually the most perfect form of click bait. It’s true enough to not piss me off but mysterious enough to really gain my interest. A very cool story Mark. Like always!
Felton needs to mention the extensive nazi involvement in the space program
@@mustang1912He did in the first two minutes. He was jokingly referring to the scientist being reminded of their previous management by using a tiger in a Nasa facility.
Yes indeed. And it had a nice twist at the end, twist drill, that is. (I'll see myself out) 🚪
@@David-yo5ws The drill was at the front though (getting out directly behind you)
@@VoodooMcVee The front end is still an end (grabbing hat and coat)
They could have used any remotely controlled vehicle to do this job, but chose a king tiger scale model. The man behind this project truly is a man of culture and history.
Or a nazi, like a Lot of the nasa scientists.
Not necessarily! Different hull shapes have different surface area on the top. So _technically_ something like a sherman would be a worse chassis-choice considering the engine deck is sloped down a bit- not perfectly flat so you can mount everything level like on the Tiger. Gosh- what an over analysis.
@@Brave_Sir_Robinin your case that would make Tiger l your top pick for the job right?
@@matthewlok3020 Tiger two has the front slope, which in theory, could disperse the blast similarly to V shaped underbelly vehicles.
The guy probably wanted to play with this RC tank. Lmao.
I was trying to wrap my head around why NASA had a WWII Tiger tank and thinking that firing an 88mm gun anywhere except in a combat zone made no sense! When you revealed the answer, it sounded like a gotcha moment! This was one of the most interesting videos I’ve seen in a long while! Thanks for posting!
NASA is secretly made up of Nazis
my dumbass was like, so what then, they just gonna poke it with the barrel, oh maybe they put a pointy stick on it! japanese scale model came like ½ sec after.
Roller coaster of emotions really.
Government agencies often have things that don't make sense. The EPA owned a Plymouth SuperBird.
Well... Maybe avalanche control.
Tamiya could sell a 1:1 scale of the Tire Assault Vehicle.
Wherever there's a unique military story, you can find Mark Felton! Cheers, Mark!
Jawohl
Jawohl
I saw it on TikTok 4 days ago
Yes, thank you Dr. Felton, this kind of weird bit of history always is fascinating and interesting to know.
I would have thought they'd build a MAUS replica, and give it a tail (control wire)
This was hilarious! A scale model Japanese built King Tiger tank with a drill?! I never heard of this before. Brilliantly sold and well done. Thanks, Mark.
I think Tamiya’s 1/16 RC tanks have to be assembled yourself
"ACTIVATE DRILL! RAMMING SPEED!"
I'm sure NASA engineers can handle that.
As young I wanted my own space shuttle. All my brother wanted was a 1/16 RC *Tamiya* King Tiger tank. Now I know why.
Funny they didn't use a ''Mikita'' drill to keep with the Japanese theme?
This is literally the only tank ever made that not only didn't harm anyone, it actually saved 9 lives in the process. What a hero tank.
Being a Tank is a rough gig. I'm glad he made it work.
We’re the M113’s used as ambulances/transport for some of the rocket launches used in Vietnam or something? I’d think they’d count otherwise
Bob semple?
it saved a whole cat!
They're coming up with a kind of remote controlled recovery tracked bot to retrieve injured soldiers off an active combat area, lightly armored with a 500 lb weight capacity. Will that count?
I've built many Tamiya tank kits. Always found it interesting that the hulls were set up to allow for motors and batteries if you wanted to make the model "drive"..Always wondered how often people did this...never imagined such a creative use for it!!!
Tamiya also released the same models as RC models ( including motors, optional sound units and recoil motors ect ect ) ,you can still buy them. The most early model of Tamiya 1/16 was actually a Sherman , it is still sold today in a full option "computer controlled" RC model , they still use some of the same molds they did , or copy's of them.
@@NavyfieldVikings I beleive there are even RC kits you can install in these that control with a smartphone.
@@NavyfieldVikings most hobby stores dont even sell it and all online are out of stock
@@gearheaddave9639 When i was into the "rc tank" hobby i used to order them directly form Japan, might still be a source right now. The stocks aways where fluctuating in the years, they did production runs, and it was never a non-stop production proces .
@@NavyfieldVikings well the only RC tanks i have are the metal version heng long tanks
This mini tank drill story is so weird, I'm genuinely perplexed how it isn't lazily covered by dozens of other channels, like many other topics.
Because nobody cares... small tracked toy vehicles are used very often. The strange aspect is that they chose a german tank design, possibly elluding to something...
@@Vuldin7any elaboration on that last part?
@@xanx3572Who worked at NASA in the beginning my guy?
Im sure its going to be on 13 other channels tomorrow
Mark often finds unique forgotten stories, wait 2 months and you'll see more about this down the UA-cam pipelines
My dad used to sell those Tamiya models in his model games and craft store. That's what we did in the long winters in southern the Ontario town of Cobourg. In the summer we sold and built swimming pools. Oh my god, those Tamiya kits had a million bits, but they actually worked. The Airfix, and the Revel kits were so mich easier to put together and had a fifth of the bits. Amazing that Tamiya was used by NASA. Another amazing story. Thanks Mr. Felton. My old dad would have loved your videos. He too was a seemingly ordinary little Englishman. In reality, he was the greatest man I ever knew.
God bless
I don't know why, but for some crazy reason this absolutely warmed my heart! It's so adorable!
Me too. ❤
Warmed your heart? I hope you're OK.
I grew up near Tamiya's USA headquarters and always loved seeing their tanks! Almost won one in one of their raffles but ended up with a rock crawler instead as second place. So cool to find out they were put to some actual productive use in this way!
tlt's were the best. I still have several sets of axles with cvd's that I never used.
I'm glad youtube actually notified me of this on time.
Same here
@@ThisHandleIsNotTaken. So many times I'll get the notification and it'll be like 1-2 days late.
I don't understand.
The information presented doesn't have an expiry.
You mean you weren’t getting notified 4 hours after? Shocker.
@@HemiChrysler So what's your point?
Mark has the perfect voice for narrating military history.
When I saw the title my first thought was that this was an April fools video posted a bit late or early. Once again though, Dr. Felton comes through with arcane history that only he seems to be able to dig up.
April Fools Day. "This is the day upon which we are reminded of what we are on the other three hundred and sixty-four."
- Mark Twain
Particularly with those 'leaked photographs' from Hangar E - at Bovington... 😀
The tires were originally B.F. Goodrich, manufactured in Stanley, North Carolina. It became Michelin Aircraft Tire after the merger. I used to calibrate the boiler house instruments and controls.
When the space shuttle Columbia re-entered the atmosphere, the hot gases cut their way through the aluminum wing spars until it breached the left side wheel well. We know this because the last message from Mission Control was "We see your tire pressure messages and did not copy your last". The tire pressure sensors had just gone offscale low, indicating the loss of the sensor wiring connection.
When the plasma got to the tires, they exploded, taking the left elevon off and throwing the orbiter into a spin roll.
dang that makes sense, so the tires were a liability
@@Blox117 When the tire configuration for the orbiters was tested and certified run-flat technology didn't exist, and since there had never been a problem before NASA never devoted any effort to implementation of foam.
Did you work at the OPF. I probably check your badge.
Oh boy! I was racking my brain on surviving King Tigers and without coming up with a possible option you definitely got me! Brilliant! Loved this video!
The Soviets used an ISU 152 to fight the Chernobyl fire, its the most Russian thing to do. 😂
Search Mark Felton Chernobyl tank assault.
Mark Felton, despite all the years creating content has once more found a way to surprise us
Do you seriously believe this story?
I don't.
The pictures show the Bovington's Königstiger with its "104" painted on the turret and the missing mudguard.
Mark Felton successfully baited us, and I can't even be mad.
Tamiya models were an important part of my childhood. Glad to see them being put to use in such a unique way
I had numerous cars. I was very close to buying the King Tiger kit but never did. Regrets I've had a few ... 😂
Yeah I have fond memories of building and driving various Tamiya R/C cars like the Hornet, Monster Beetle etc.
They weren't cheap compared to other toys but worth the money for the amount of fun we got out of them. I used to save up my pocket money to buy them.
@@veeeks2938 me too. I don’t even know how available they are these days. Growing up I had to go to a specific model and craft store to pick them up
Absolutely first class story telling. The introduction music sure suits the Tiger...
Well. I never tire of Dr. Felton's Productions. This is absolutely the longest walk in Tiger tank history. Glad to have made every step. Ace as always.
I have a space rocket book from the 1960s that shows a converted Sherman tank minus gun plus some additional equipment at Cape Kennedy used as a forward mobile observation post for rocket launches enabling closer viewing of the launch pad than from the fixed bunkers with the protection for the observers of its tank armour.
Along with the sherman M113 APCs are currently being used as an armored astronaut eviction vehicle in case of possible launch pad explosion. NASA also has several modified M45 .50 cal quad mounts that are fitted with large cameras and used to film launches.
As a novice historian, model kit builder ( Tamiya) and proficient in obscure facts . You knocked it out of the park with this one Mark! Thanks again for yet another great story.
Passing this along to my NASA friends.. great stuff!!
I love the ingenuity of this thing. That and the fact that it was deployed to do it's task. Can you imagine the meeting where the engineers proposed this?
Finally a king tiger with a reasonable weight
To be honest, I thought you were being serious about the King Tiger for a while. My guess was they had it as a gate guard at a remote test lab somewhere. The face that it is a model kit converted to be used as a remote drone is really cools. This feels like something that would get a short feature on Myteries at the Museum if it was still around. Good job Mark.
Edit: I also love how they went with a home made RC tank cobbled together by someone in their back shed, vs the million dollar, purpose built machine.
I had completely forgotten this little tidbit of history, Thank You again Dr. Felton 👍❤️🇺🇸
this is why I watch your channel. unique and interesting content I don't find anywhere else.
You had me going up until the point you mentioned it was actually a Japanese tank - I thought it was the infamous Tiger that Japan was supposed to have been given to them by Germany - great testimony to Tamiya about their model making quality! Thanks Dr Felton!
I think the Japanese Tiger was a Tiger I
Great video, my thumbs up is actually for the cool footage of a Convair 990 in action! My dad worked for an airline in the 70s when the Convair 880 and 990 were still in service and known for their great speed. Now largely forgotten, in their day they were great jetliners and pilots used to "race" each other to see if they could shave seconds off the route times in their speedy Convair jetliners.
Oh, the days of cheap fuel, just a distant dream now. ⌛
FASCINATING! And I just love the manner in which you presented this. I was puzzling over HOW they could use a Tiger II to take down a used tire!!!
First thing to come to mind was that 88 Kwk43/L71. But I thought “wait a minute, we are only supposed to blow a bloody tyre off”
YOU DUPED ME!
And I love it
I love your channel Dr. Felton, always something new! Im never "tired" of your excellent content!
That's amazing. So glad they preserved it.
As always, Thanks for informitive original research
Not going to lie, Mark... You had us in the first half
I live very close to this Air Force base! I have to go see this ASAP
As usual Dr. Felton tells an interesting and little-known story that is quite fascinating!
3:38 It's adorable, just look at the little guy.
Check out Ladungsträger "Goliath" and Springer (tiny mobile mine carriers). They're even cute lol
For a moment I thought they made a 280 Mph fast Tiger II with Shuttle wheels instead of tracks. That would be a sight to behold.
I am currently customizing and painting a 1/16th scale RC Jagdpanther from Henglong and finished a Tiger I from Henglong last year. My next project will be a King Tiger from Henglong that I have here still in its box, and I am so excited to work on it. I have been watching your videos all the while working on my little tanks over the years, and it was a great treat to see this video while working on my own 1/16 scale tank myself. I never thought an RC tank would make it into one of your videos and I am so fascinated by this story! Thank you, again, for taking the time to make such fantastic videos. Keep up the great work! God Bless
How about a model of the NASA tank in this video?
That sounds like a cool project.
@@mikesmith-po8nd haha ya! Do you mean a 1/16th scale of the 1/16th model? Now that would be impressive 😅
Yes, it would. But what I had in mind was to find a copy of the model that NASA used and duplicate their rig. I'm not a modeler, so I don't know if they are still available. But if so, that would be one heck of a conversation piece.
@@mikesmith-po8ndI think Dr. Felton got that sorted out for you
I bought a Henglong Panzer IV for my son. All I did was gave it metal wheels and track and replace the short barrel gun with a long one
Anyone else get......emotional, at things like this and of course the Mars Rovers,
These small nonsentient creations we build just to perform a duty, theres something so oddly charming about them
Now That is what I call an interesting story. Very well done Dr Felton. A Japanese-built small-scale model of a German-origin World War 2 heavy tank armed with a drill being used at NASA in the USA to deflate space shuttle tyres. Truth stranger than fiction. When I saw the title I thought that maybe they shipped a Tiger 2 to act as a mobile shelter for technicians when handling dangerous materials in the space program. However, the actual twist in the tale was an absolute surprise. Very well done indeed.
I once read in the Sun newspaper that a B-29 bomber had been spotted on the moon. Nice to open a WW2 war museum there.
Dr Felton, just when I thought you were presenting NASA putting “Tiger Tanks In Space”, you brought me down to Earth with well research cool NASA tire tests. Thanks and carry on sir.😄👍🏻🇺🇸
Mr Felton is the only person that can't make me mad at clickbait!
Until you revealed the truth, I really thought that it was a real Tiger tank. Nice one, Mark.
In a similar vein of models being used in the big World, were you aware that the UK Atomic Energy Authority used a Hornby-Dublo locomotive to safely position and retrieve samples for irradiation? It was at one of the research facilities either at or near Harwell- I can't remember which as it was so long ago.
I dug this out:
“ It wasn't at a nuclear power station but was at the Atomic Energy Authority's Radiation Research Laboratory in Wantage and appeared in a short piece in the September 1960 Meccano Magazine.
Researchers needed to collect samples from a liquid plastic being subject to a very intense radioactive source inside a cell and move them about 45 feet to where they could be safely handled (presumably with the remote manipulators commonly used in such situations) After considering a specially designed transport system the low tech solution they came up with was a Hornby Dublo 2-6-4 tank loco rail loco ( 80033 a BR 4MT) towing an open wagon in which a sample beaker was set. The train was observed through a system of mirrors and the movement of the train controlled from outside the test cell. The MM article - which reads like a newsagency report- says that the researchers bought the train from "a local toy shop" but ISTR that it and the track actually came from Howes in Oxford.”
@@Oligodendrocyte139who cares about it
I do, a cracking little story 😄
@@Oligodendrocyte139Thanks for the info on that. I tried Googling but found nothing about it. I knew that the research lab was somewhere in the area as there were several sites near the main centre at Harwell, like Wantage and Culham. I even resided in the UKAEA hostel at Abingdon for a year. The train was a cheap and simple solution to a technical problem and it worked, as did Nasa's Tiger tank model. Anyway, thanks again.
@@andrewnewstead4367 I do as well.
I love the ever so British understatement in the writing style here: '...firing weapons at a very expensive aircraft on a busy airfield is not normally advisable'. Priceless.
I'm sure that with this particular clip Mark was being truly sincere by concluding with his regular quip : "Tanks for watching". 😂
Your channel is better than anything that television can offer.
Hey cool right as I get off work too. Thanks mark!
After watching thousands of videos on UA-cam, this definitely is one of the coolest.
Dear Mark,
thank you for this exciting story about NASA tyre-tests. I really loved the Space Shuttle from my "Kindergarten"-days, end of the 1970`s and still own - but given to my son - the Model of the "ENTERPRISE" made by ERTL I got on my fifth or sixth Birthday in 1977 or 1978 by my early friend Daniel... .
Best regards from Germany
René
Tire assault vehicle is such an awesome name.
Dr. Felton your stories never cease to amaze me. You should write a book with some of his/fan favorite stories from this channel. Maybe even call it "War Stories With Mark Felton".
Literally could’ve used some generic tracked vehicle but chooses a Tiger 2. Absolutely based program.
Funny it is actually called "Tire Assault Vehicle". A nice way to remember the origins of the real tank.
I think this is way beyond cool. I love to see complex problems solved by low-cost ingenuity. Thanks for the video and info.
Always luv listening to your stories Mark. You have a fine taste for intriguing subjects that shed light on mans failures and successes in machine and war development. That little ribot did a great service. While NASA scrabbled to set up the rudimentary space defenses.
Honestly the coolest story I’ve heard in a while. Especially given they officially named it
Wow! Tiger 2?! NASA?! I’m in. That was an incredible story of off-the-wall mash-up and typical NASA genius. Thanks, Dr. Felton!
My dad worked for NASA (1962-92). I got a chuckle out of this.
Haha, “well I’m not being completely honest with you”, a master stroke of understatement! Amusing, educational and fascinating all at the same time. Excellent content from a master as always. 😂
How you find these stories is beyond mind blowing 🤯
Thank you Mark.
What a moment to log in, hot off the press.
Thank you Mr. Felton
I'm going to repress the memory of watching this video. Dr Felton would never trick me like this 😞
Very interesting indeed. I had no idea the tires on a shuttle craft could be so dangerous. Thank you for posting.
Even a truck tyre failing on the highway can blow the windows out of a car alongside
The tires played a major role in the loss of the space shuttle Columbia and her crew. While the dry nitrogen gas isn't flammable or explosive the fact that they are filled with 300 psia of it is where the danger is. Large tires used on earthmoving equipment and tractor trailer rigs are equally dangerous.
@@MrOlgrumpyThat's why you spend as little time as possible beside them and never follow them too closely.
tires from a semi truckor just a car really are already pretty dangerous if they pop, now imagine how much psi has to be in those tires to hold up an entire shuttle!
Even with “clickbait” Dr Felton finds a way to make a great video
3:19 😮............." You Son of a Bitch !!! " 😂
"Tire Assault Vehicle" - the awesomeness of that name can not be overstated. Simply legendary!
What a story. I at first thought it was a real king Tiger. But now a model of such. Especially from the famous Tamiya company 😅! My compliments, & thanks from my fellow modelers, & myself.
I built that Tamayia Tiger model TWICE as a boy !
Along with the other offerings , still in production.
I never dreamed it was to be utilized for such an important mission .
I remember this setup! Before my time at the space center, but I got to see some pictures and videos of this thing getting thrown by a blast.
But I did hear about an actual real WWII tank that was used for the space program. Originally Naval Air Station Banana River during WWII, site was transferred to the Air Force to become Cape Canaveral Air Force Base, and later Kennedy Space Center. The predecessor to NASA was NACA, and in 1950 they arranged the launch of the first rocket from Cape Canaveral, called the Bumper 2. The rocket used a V2 missile as the first stage with a US Corporal rocket as the second stage. There was no rocket launch infrastructure, but the launch equipment and pad was relatively simple to knock together quickly. What wasn’t so fast was the construction of a blockhouse to protect the launch crew. The solution was to borrow a Sherman tank from the Army, point the turret away from the rocket and run all the wires through the gun barrel to the guy, who I was told literally drew the short straw, inside with the final launch panel. A field telephone ran from the tank to a command post much farther away where they gave the order to fire. Besides the slight possibility of fiery and explosive death, the big complaint from the guy inside was that he didn’t even get to see the first few seconds of the launch since he couldn’t see out of the driver or bow gunner’s vision blocks and the turret was pointed away from the launch.
Hats off to the engineer who thought of that idea for thinking way outside the box.
You had me going until the "Big Reveal" Doctor Felton! Good one!
And there's SOME viewers of this channel who think there's no room for a little humor. This might have made a good "April Fools Day" episode but I imagine you couldn't wait until then. I don't think I could have either! Well done!
As a Tamiya model kit enthusiast this story fills me with joy!
4:03
Show this image to someone out of context…
Dr Felton's videos will never be boring
I had to have a chuckle when the cost of the little remote vehicle came in at just under 3 thousand dollars. NASA spent just over 1 million dollars trying to make a pen that would work in space for the moon landing. Remember, this is back in the sixtys, just over a million dollars was a lot of money. The USSR fixed that problem and it only cost them around 25 cents . They used a pencil.
The pen story is mostly BS. The Soviets spent a lot of time and money on a pen before giving up and using pencils, but the graphite and wood shavings from pencils were dangerous in a zero-g environment. The Fisher pen company spent a million dollars of its own money, not taxpayer dollars, developing the space pen, which it sold to both NASA and the Soviets.
I saw an article about this a few days ago, excited to see a Mark Felton video on it!
What’s a NASA “buffin”?
boffin - British slang for egghead.
@@MarkFeltonProductions thanks, learned even more from you today!
As always Mr. Felton you find an angle on a story that takes our breath away....God's speed on your next project!
They had us in the first half, not gonna lie
I have changed my share of these 44 ply Aircraft tires in the late 80's and early 90's by hand by using semi tire truck bars by hand , it is no fun and it is not a good job for a amateur. A defective or run partially flat can kill you airing it up in a cage or not. Glad that we didn't have to do anymore after the 98'.calendar year. Hard and dangerous work. Today they are pre mounted or put on by a big truck tire/loader tire machine. Great job, great day and God bless your history accounts of yesterday with the original proof the history and the original places and things used. Thanks again for the work, time and effort, Dr. Felton. We need more people like you!🤠
Tire Assault Vehicle. Absolutely brilliant!
That twist ending was better than some films i've seen.
Tire Assault Vehicle. This was one great segment. Thank you.
This isn't even clickbait. This is just good content.
Definitely worth a Gotcha Oscar! Well done. Great story. Thank you.
Wherever I thought this history was going , boy was I wrong ! NASA ingenuity at its best
thx4sharingHistory
Never been clickbaited so hard as this and never felt so ok by it as now.
I have that Tiger model, but without the drill! A fascinating story. Thanks again. Really good stuff.
You had me at “boffins” (2:09). Todays word of the day! 👍
I won't lie, he had us in the first half lol, got a good chuckle from this, cheers!
Max's models sent me here. The only thing I can say is how great is that!! Man I wish my father could of watched this! That man that got me into models 45 yrs ago. Thanks for sharing this!
Delightful as ever Doctor Felton!
What an amazing story! It may also have boosted the morale of the old Prussian Paperclip Platoon.
The absolute best name for a vehicle they could have come up with