[VIDEO] Before switching to Mr. Beat this morning I saw this latest video by Mustard which seems to cover a lot of videos discussing transportation projects such as trains, airplanes or even vehicles such as this Antarctic Snow Cruiser. That vehicle was constructed in Chicago by the Armour Institute of Technology (if you don't know that institution is now known as Illinois Institute of Technology).
Regardless as Mustard stated this does look like something out of a Jules Verne movie the design being perhaps very influenced by the then in fashion art deco/stream moderne styling. The unfortunate thing is that as the construction of this beast was rushed the cruiser itself had some issues involving speed and traction on the snow & ice that eventually it was abandoned.
According to this Wiki page we don't know about the current fate of this vehicle after 1958:
During Operation Highjump in late 1946, an expedition team found the vehicle and discovered it needed only air in the tires and some servicing to make it operational.
In 1958, an international expedition uncovered the snow cruiser at Little America III using a bulldozer. It was covered by 23 feet (7.0 m) of snow but a long bamboo pole marked its position. They were able to excavate to the bottom of the wheels and accurately measure the amount of snowfall since it was abandoned. Inside, the vehicle was exactly as the crew had left it, with papers, magazines, and cigarettes scattered all around.
Later expeditions reported no trace of the vehicle. Although there was some unsubstantiated speculation that the (traction-less) Snow Cruiser was taken by the Soviet Union during the Cold War, the vehicle most likely is either at the bottom of the Southern Ocean or buried deep under snow and ice. Antarctic ice is in constant motion and the ice shelf is constantly moving out to sea. In 1963, a large chunk of the Ross Ice Shelf broke off and drifted away; the break occurred right through Little America. It is not known on which side of the ice shelf the Snow Cruiser was located.
I don't know how often during our geography lessons how much we were taught about Antarctica which is the only uninhabited continent on the planet owing to its position at the very bottom of Earth. The conditions there are inhospitable for people although as noted in the above video it's home to a number of natural resources such as minerals and fossil fuels (oil/petroleum). Quite a few nations have sent expeditions there and even laid a claim to the continent.
I wish I.I.T. could rebuild this amazing vehicle the right way and perhaps get it rolling on Antarctica.
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