Perfect for the icy weather: these cool snowmobile things from the Cold War

Take a look at what was recently offered for sale:

Yeaahhh! That’s a… okay, what exactly? A boat?

No. That, dear users, is one Tupolev A-3 Nadezhda. And it actually drives on water… but just as well on snow and ice.

The Nadezhdaor, to call them by their English names, Aerosled (ooooh yes, there are entire folders dedicated to this vehicle in CIA and MI6 files) was developed in the 1960s when the USSR was looking for new transportation solutions for the vast, snow-covered eastern wilderness.

The difficult winter conditions in the remote areas led Tupolev’s design bureau to develop a vehicle that was part airplane, part snowmobile, and part ground effect vehicle (ekranoplan). Ground effect vehicles take advantage of the air cushion effect that exists between a wing and the ground at very low altitudes. This phenomenon allows these vehicles to hover just above the surface above a certain speed.

With the A-3 Aerosledge, speeds of approximately 120 km/h would have been possible.

The A-3 shown here is said to have been used for cosmonaut rescue operations in the early 1970s. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, she was exported to Germany, where she was completely renovated. It recently sold for about R200,000… to the US.

Keyword USA: The Americans were already looking for transport solutions for the Arctic wilderness of Alaska in the interwar period. An early solution was this Fordson iron malamute from 1926:

Probably the first – and perhaps last – snow vehicle to rely on the screw propulsion principle. Track record? Stabbed. Here is a restored copy:

In 1939 it was believed that wheels would be better suited to snowy terrain. You just have to make them big enough:

That, ladies and gentlemen, is it Antarctic snow cruiser the United States Antarctic Service Expedition (1939-1941).

The HUGE section must function not only as a means of transportation, but also as a mobile research station with living and working areas for the crew in the vehicle itself.

And oh yes, also as an aircraft transporter.

The designers of the Russian model followed a no different principle ZIL-E167 from 1962 (which brings us back to the Cold War):

This six-wheeled monster was intended for use in the oil industry, as well as for geologists and other economic and research sectors who needed to carry out exploration or work in the barely developed vast areas of Siberia.

Only a prototype was built, but from 1963 more than 20,000 kilometers were covered in several years. However, series production never took place.

That was more successful Kharkovchankawhich had been in use since 1958:

The tracked vehicle, based on the T-54 army tank, was built for the Soviet scientific expeditions in Antarctica. Comparable to the American one Snow cruiser the crew could live and work there, had it Kharkovchanka yes, a common room, a radio operator cabin, a galley, a toilet, a drying room and an observation dome for astro-navigation. To make repairs without leaving the vehicle, the engine was accessible through a hatch.

Kharkovchanka By the way, it means “the Kharkov woman”, because that is where the tracked vehicle came from Kharkov design bureau for mechanical engineering in Kharkov – that is, in present-day Ukraine.

After the ground effect, the snow screws and the ferris wheels we would have arrived at the chains… which eventually became the standard for transport through the snow. For example, for the first crossing of Antarctica via the South Pole in 1958, the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition four Tucker Sno Cat:

“No road too steep, no snow too deep” – the American company Tucker Sno Cat has been building – and continues to build – tracked vehicles for use in snow since the 1940s. Here is a 1967 model:

And here is the smallest model Kittens from 1955:

Yeah – actually we just wanted you to be the cool one Tupolev A-3 present from the beginning of the article. But then it got us and we could barely fend off the Kharkov women and Sno-Cats… before it occurred to us: the very, very coolest vehicle for the (current, unfortunately) Arctic winter is and remains this Mini Trac from 1965:

Tadaaa!