The invention of the flying tank ‘died prematurely’

In conflicts throughout history, humans have invented many strange methods of attack, from Greek Fire in the Byzantine period to catapults that hurled the bodies of plague patients at their enemies in the 14th century. One such invention is the flying tank, devised by the Soviet Union during World War II, but was short-lived.

Tanks, even small ones, are still heavy and bulky. Therefore, the process of transporting them to the battlefield becomes a major challenge. Driving tanks all the way will leave them vulnerable to enemy attacks. So the Soviet Union began experimenting with ways of transporting by air.

They once experimented with tying T-27 ultralight tanks to the undercarriage of bombers, then taking them to airports and setting them down. However, the destructive power of tanks is not great enough to compensate for the risks of using expensive aircraft. Some other measures are to use planes to drop tanks into the water or drop them from a very low height. Soldiers would parachute down and climb into tanks in the hope that the enemy would not arrive in time.

But then, during World War II, the Soviet Union came up with another idea: attaching a tank to a glider so that it rushed into battle. The result was the Antonov A-40 Krylya Tanka, or “winged tank”, was born.

In 1940, designer Oleg Antonov attempted to build a hover tank, essentially attaching a biplane’s wings and long tail to a small, lightweight tank. The idea was that the flying tank would be towed and released by a larger plane. Next, it will simply glide down to the battlefield before removing its wings and tail.

It took several years for a flying tank prototype to be built and tested. “When testing the flight, they had to leave out the ammunition and most of the fuel to save weight. The idea is that when the tank’s turret rotates, the driver will move the joysticks on the wings. Just move gun to the left or right,” explains Jim Winchester, author of the book The History of Aviation: A Century of Powered Flight Day by Day.

In 1942, test pilot Sergei Anokhin sat in the tank as it was pulled into the air by a Tupolev TB-3 bomber. However, people quickly realized that this was not a good idea because the resistance of flying tanks was too great for bombers. The tank was dropped early, but Anokhin still controlled it to glide down and land safely in a field, then drove back to base.

Although Japan and Britain have both attempted to create their own versions of flying tanks, they have not been able to turn them into effective aerodynamic vehicles. Therefore, like the Soviet Union, they quickly abandoned this idea.