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https://hdl.handle.net/11681/30830| Title: | Ground-Crawling, 1966 : The State-of-the-Art of Designing Off-Road Vehicles |
| Authors: | Nuttall, C. J. (Clifford J.) U.S. Army Engineer Waterways Experiment Station Mobility and Environmental Systems Laboratory (U.S.) |
| Keywords: | All terrain vehicles--Design and construction |
| Publisher: | U.S. Army Engineer Waterways Experiment Station |
| Series/Report no.: | Contract Report (U.S. Army Engineer Waterways Experiment Station);no. 3-162 |
| Abstract: | This survey of the state-of-the-art of the design of ground-crawling, off-road vehicles was conducted by Wilson, Nuttall, Raimond Engineers, Inc. (WNRE), under contract DA 22-079-eng-392 with the U. S. Army Engineer Waterways Experiment Station (WES). It comprises a portion of the mobility environmental research study (MERS), sponsored by the Office, Secretary of Defense, Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), Directorate of Remote Area Conflict, for which WES is the prime contractor, and the U. S. Army Materiel Command (AMC) is the service agent. The funds employed for this study were allocated to WES through AMC, under ARPA Order No. 400. The overall object of the MERS project was to focus the results of the ground mobility and vehicle-terrain research of the preceding 20 years upon the problems of rationally designing and/or selecting proper off-road vehicles for military USC in remote areas, particularly in the tropics and subtropics. Project MERS was severely truncated after one year of a planned three-year effort, leading indirectly to an unconscionable delay in the completion of this report. Although the principal findings of this study were communicated earlier (WNRE, 1964, 1965], the present synthesis was not, nor could it have been. The period of delay has seen the escalation of the U. S. role in Southeast Asia from providing advice to the conduct of extensive land warfare by U. S. troops. The experience of actual war, however remote, has influenced the present synthesis, as no doubt it has the concepts of others interested in off-road vehicle problems. The dramatic practical demonstration of air-mobile operations on the one hand and of the patent inadequacy of our current family of ground-bound vehicles on the other, has drastically altered the climate within which ground-crawling vehicle problems must be tackled. The author makes no apology for his accidental good fortune in having been spared making his addition to the considerable inaccurate speculation already published on these crucial points, and on many others. The conduct of this study, which in fact continued until the present, involved the review of many hundreds of published reports covering the spectrum of terrain, vehicle, and operations features, and discussions and correspondence with several hundred knowledgeable people around the world. The author's appreciation for their various contributions and influences can here only be acknowledged in general terms. However, the entirely tangible support and assistance of MERS/WES project personnel, A. A. Rula, R. D. Wismer, and R. R. Friesz, can be and are specifically and gratefully noted. |
| Description: | Contract Report |
| Gov't Doc #: | Contract Report No. 3-162 |
| Rights: | Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited |
| URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/11681/30830 |
| Size: | 342 pages / 29.31Mb |
| Types of Materials: | PDF/A |
| Appears in Collections: | Contract Report |
Files in This Item:
| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WES Contract Report No 3-162.pdf | 30.02 MB | Adobe PDF |  View/Open |