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Ok - Finally made it home from my vacation trip that included the day at the Aberdeen facility tour courtesy Bob Smart, Neil Baumgardner et al. Many, many thanks to those organizing the tour - was a very well done set up! I especially enjoyed getting to see the items not currently out on display. And it was good to see those items that are still there again too.

Here are some of the photos I took (out of a total of 179!).












It was good to meet everyone. Hope that maybe we can do some more trips like this in the future (maybe at Fort Knox before everything gets shipped out to wherever?).

Chris Neel

Cris, Neil, thanks for the pics for us poor souls that couldn't come....

What is and who used the weird looking guns on the M46/M48 and the M41 chassis?

Thanks for the pictures! I wish I could only get there someday!


Jeff

- JeffStringer

What is and who used the weird looking guns on the M46/M48 and the M41 chassis?

The one mounted on the M48 chassis is an experimental 105mm mount that was apparently developed between the M48 series leading up to the M60 series - the vehicle in the photo is the T54E1. It seems a similar design approach was used in the light tank series as well (between the M41 Bulldogs and the T92s and the Sheridans) - but I didn't see anything in the Hunnicuts Sheridan book on this particular version.

According to Hunnicutt's Firepower book - there was also a similar design mounted on an M103 chassis that carried a 155mm gun. Too bad that monster did not survive - that would have been just too cool to have been able to see that one...

They also had a pilot version Bulldog (a T41) that has the side mounted gun packs on the turret:



This area was my favorite area of the tour. Too bad they had all of the unique tanks bunched together so that you couldn't get good photos of them.

cn

Oh... T3!!!
Walkaround of this amazing tank is possible?

Thanks for sharing the pics. Are all those grouped tanks (Walker pilot, etc) sitting in the parking area right behind the museum?

That would be great if they're getting set for some refurbishing and display. They're some of the same ones I've seen pictures of in the past, that used to sit along side the road at Aberdeen.

Ray

Unforturnately, no - all of the pilot/experimental vehicles were located back in the complex by the warehouse where some restored vehicles are held (not on display). I don't know if they will be restored eventually or not - I certainly hope that they will be one day - but who can tell with these things.


cn

for Taranov
The Christie T-3 is in the warehouse and can only be accessed by one of Bob Smart's behind the scenes tours HTH

Jeff Lewis

The photos below are the only other photos I took of the T3 Christie while I was there:




Some others may have taken some more.

cn

Hey thanks for the info and the really cool pics! I guess I need to get me some more books, huh?


Jeff

Questions from the ex-red leg section, hope you guys don't mind.

What are the M (or T) designations of these two tanks, so I can look for more information.


They look like the same idea as French AMX.


Also, this one must be proto-type of Abrams (?)


Thanks

This one is the T54E1 - developed between the M48 and the M60 programs:


I have not been able to identify this one - but appears to be based on an M41 light tank chassis:



This one would be an MBT-70 - initially a joint development by the US and Germany (and I think Britain was also involved at one point) - but the program was overly expensive and cut from the budget - many ideas developed on this vehicle made it to the Abrams program:

Yeah, the best looking American tank that never made production!

I believe the tank above, with the oscillating turret is the 90mm T69, tested at APG in 1955. The turret is installed on a T42 hull.

Ray

Ok - I found the T42 & T69/T42 vehicles in the Hunnicutt's Patton book (I had orginally looked in the Sheridan book). The T42 looking similar to the T41/M41 chassis but being made from a cast body rather than a welded body as the M41's are. I believe that the materials thickness are also much thicker in the cast T42 than in the M41 welded chassis mateiral.

The T42 originally looks to have been mated with the turret type that was later installed on the M47 series (with a 90mm gun vs. the 76mm found on the M41's). So I wonder if I rounded out an M41 kit with an M47 turret if I would end up with a reasonable representation of an T42? Pretty cool looking, anyway (kinda like the Pershing turret test mounted on a Sherman chassis).

Wonder how difficult it would be to model on of those oscillating turrets?

later

cn