Combat Walker

Tales of Future Past has a wonderful assortment of things-that-were-to-be-but-never-were. In the Future War section, most of the postings are old magazine covers depicting dreadnaughts with treads and armored ferris wheels, all of which look as if they could have been the inspiration for Michael Moorcock's Land Leviathan.

The exhibit that caught my eye looks more like a cross between a swift boat, a deuce-and-a-half, and the Robot Spy mechanized spider from Jonny Quest or the misbegotten child of an old WW2 DUKW and a 'mech from Battletech.

Believe it or not, this was a dead-serious project by the US Army to allow troops to carry gear over rough terrain and through jungles. They actually built a prototype that looked like an iron elephant that had tangled with a computer mainframe, but it proved impractical because of limitations of the hydraulic systems, driver fatigue while carrying out even the simplest of tasks, and the tendency of the machine to do the Hokey Cokey without provocation.



The logical goal of all this walking machine research was something like this proposed Combat Walker of 1962 that consisted of a caravan of motorised mechanical pack mules led by a manned combat unit.

One must admit it has a certain charm; the tiny cockpit, the tiny periscope, the tiny cannon, the tiny engine; all good.

The tiny armour; not so good.