Winged tanks were the subject of several unsuccessful experiments in the 20th century. It was intended that these could be towed behind, or carried under, an airplane, to glide into a battlefield, in support of

infantry Infantry, or infantryman are a type of soldier who specialize in ground combat, typically fighting dismounted. Historically the term was used to describe foot soldiers, i.e. those who march and fight on foot. In modern usage, the term broadl ...

forces. In war,

airborne forces Airborne forces are ground combat units carried by aircraft and airdropped into battle zones, typically by parachute drop. Parachute-qualified infantry and support personnel serving in airborne units are also known as paratroopers. The main ...

use parachutes to drop soldiers behind enemy lines to capture and hold important objectives until more heavily equipped friendly troops can arrive. Military planners have always sought ways to provide airborne troops with combat support equipment in the form of light armored vehicles or

artillery Artillery consists of ranged weapons that launch Ammunition, munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during sieges, and l ...

which can be dropped by parachute or

military glider Military gliders (an offshoot of common gliders) have been used by the militaries of various countries for carrying troops ( glider infantry) and heavy equipment to a combat zone, mainly during the Second World War. These engineless aircraft wer ...

. The problem with air-dropping vehicles is that their crews drop separately, and may be delayed or prevented from bringing them into action.

Military glider Military gliders (an offshoot of common gliders) have been used by the militaries of various countries for carrying troops ( glider infantry) and heavy equipment to a combat zone, mainly during the Second World War. These engineless aircraft wer ...

s allow crews to arrive at the drop zone along with their vehicles. They also minimize exposure of the valuable towing aircraft, which need not appear over the battlefield. An improvement would be a

tank A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful engine; ...

which could glide into the battlefield, drop its wings, and be ready to fight within minutes. This would allow the crew to immediately begin operation. AntonovA40

Development

United States

In the early 1930s, American engineer J. Walter Christie experimented with the concept of a self-powered flying tank. Christie's design had a detachable set of wings attached to the roof of a lightly armoured tank and a propeller driven by the tank's engine. A prototype without wings was constructed, but the concept was never developed further.

Soviet experiments

In 1930, the Grokhovskiy Special Design Bureau experimented with dropping "air buses" full of troops: the bicycle-wheeled G-45 onto land, and the

amphibious Amphibious means able to use either land or water. In particular it may refer to: Animals * Amphibian, a vertebrate animal of the class Amphibia (many of which live on land and breed in water) * Amphibious caterpillar * Amphibious fish, a fish ...

"hydro bus" into water. When the hydro bus disintegrated on landing, the chief designer and his assistant were strapped into the G-45 for a test drop; they survived, but the project was cancelled. Later, the Soviets used heavy bombers to land on the battlefield carrying T-27 tankettes and

T-37 tank T37 may refer to: Vehicles * T-37A tank, a Soviet amphibious light tank * T37 light tank, a prototype American tank developed into the M41 Walker Bulldog * Bugatti Type 37, a French sports car * Cessna T-37 Tweet The Cessna T-37 Tweet (desig ...

light tanks, and experimented with air-dropping light tanks (both with and without parachutes). In 1941, airborne units were issued

T-40 amphibious tank The T-40 amphibious scout tank was an amphibious light tank used by the Soviet Union during World War II. It was armed with one 12.7 mm (0.5 in) DShK machine gun. It was one of the few tanks that could cross an unfordable river withou ...

s. None of these were completely satisfactory, so in 1942 the

Soviet Air Force The Soviet Air Forces (, VVS SSSR; literally "Military Air Forces of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics"; initialism VVS, sometimes referred to as the "Red Air Force") were one of the air forces of the Soviet Union. The other was the Sovie ...

ordered Oleg Antonov to design a glider for landing tanks. Antonov was more ambitious, and instead added a detachable cradle to a lightened

T-60 The T-60 scout tank was a light tank produced by the Soviet Union from 1941 to 1942. During this period, 6,292 units were built. The tank was designed to replace the obsolete T-38 amphibious scout tank and saw action during World War II. The K ...

light tank, bearing large wood and fabric

biplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...

wings and

twin tail A twin tail is a type of vertical stabilizer arrangement found on the empennage of some aircraft. Two vertical stabilizers—often smaller on their own than a single conventional tail would be—are mounted at the outside of the aircraft's ho ...

. Although one semi-successful test flight was completed, due to the lack of sufficiently powerful aircraft to tow it at the required 160 km/h, the project was abandoned.

Japanese projects

The Imperial Japanese Army's experimental Special No. 3 Flying Tank ''So-Ra'' or ''Ku-Ro'', was developed in 1943. Like the Soviet models, it had detachable wings, but it could also be transported by heavy gliders, namely the

Kokusai Ku-7 The Kokusai Ku-7 ''Manazuru'' (真鶴 "white-naped crane"; Allied code-name Buzzard) was a large, experimental twin boom Japanese military glider. Design and development An enlarged version of the earlier Maeda Ku-1 glider, it was developed du ...

"Buzzard" and

Kokusai Ku-8 The (Kokusai Army Type 4 Special Transport Glider) was a Japanese military glider used during the Second World War. They were usually towed by Mitsubishi G3M or Mitsubishi Ki-21 aircraft. Design and development Design of the Ku-8-II began in D ...

I "Gander". These could be towed by aircraft such as the

Mitsubishi Ki-21 The was a Japanese heavy bomber during World War II. It began operations during the Second Sino-Japanese War participating in the Nomonhan Incident, and in the first stages of the Pacific War, including the Malayan, Burmese, Dutch East Indie ...

"Sally" heavy bomber. However, the Japanese Flying Tank project was abandoned before it went into production. The tank transport gliders were deployed to the Philippines during 1944. Another prototype was Maeda Ku-6 Flying Tank, but it also did not advance to experimental phases.

United Kingdom

In 1941, L.E. Baynes produced a design for a wingspan "Carrier Wing Glider", a large tailless wing to carry a tank. A reduced scale experimental glider – the

Baynes Bat The Baynes Bat (or sometimes Slingsby-Baynes Bat) was an experimental glider of the Second World War, designed by L. E. Baynes. It was used to test the tailless design that he had suggested as a means to convert tanks into temporary gliders ...

– was tested. It was satisfactory but the project was dropped and work on gliders that could carry vehicles internally was taken up. This led to the

Airspeed Horsa The Airspeed AS.51 Horsa was a British troop-carrying glider used during the Second World War. It was developed and manufactured by Airspeed Limited, alongside various subcontractors; the type was named after Horsa, the legendary 5th-century ...

and

General Aircraft Hamilcar The General Aircraft Limited GAL.49 Hamilcar or Hamilcar Mark I was a large British Military gliders, military glider produced during the Second World War, which was designed to carry heavy cargo, such as the Light Tank Mk VII Tetrarch, Tetrar ...

that could carry a Jeep and a light tank respectively.

After World War II

The Soviet Union continued to develop methods to efficiently deploy airborne vehicles, but focusing on parachute deployment from large fixed-wing aircraft instead, in an effort to render their "winged infantry" fully mechanized as well. By the mid-1970s, they were able to drop BMD-1s with crew members aboard, using a combination of a parachute and

retrorocket A retrorocket (short for ''retrograde rocket'') is a rocket engine providing thrust opposing the motion of a vehicle, thereby causing it to decelerate. They have mostly been used in spacecraft, with more limited use in short-runway aircraft land ...

References

{{reflist Airborne tanks * Soviet inventions History of the tank