Wikimedia Commons

Unusual vehicles

Беларуская: Незвычайныя транспартныя сродкi
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Deutsch: Ungewöhnlich konstruierte Fahrzeuge
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English: Unusual vehicles
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Русский: Необычные транспортные средства
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Aircraft and spacecraft

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Ornithopters

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    Design for a flying machine, Codex Atlanticus f.844r is a drawing by Leonardo da Vinci.
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    Design for a flying machine Codex Atlanticus f.858r is a drawing by Leonardo da Vinci.
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    Goya
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    Edward Frost of Cambridgeshire, England, constructed an ornithopter of willow, silk, and feathers in 1902.
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    Ornithopter designed by Sean Kinkade, 1998

Fixed-wing aircraft

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    White Knight spaceplane
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    Aero-Spacelines Super Guppy (US)
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    Antonov A-40 flying tank glider (USSR)
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    Airbus Beluga (France)
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    AVE Mizar (US)
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    Bachem Natter vertical launch interceptor (Germany)
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    Bell X-22 experimental VTOL (US)
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    Blohm & Voss BV 141 asymmetrical (Germany)
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    Boeing X-48B blended wing (US)
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    Burgess-Dunne tailless biplane (UK & US)
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    Burnelli CB-16 lifting fuselage (US & Canada)
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    Caproni Ca.60 Noviplano nine-wing flying boat (Italy)
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    Caproni-Stipa ducted fan (Italy)
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    Caproni Campini N.1 thermojet (Italy)
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    Columban CriCri (France)
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    Convair XFY-1 VTOL fighter (US)
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    Convair NB-36H Nuclear powered aircraft (US)
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    Douglas X-3 Stiletto (US)
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    Gossamer Albatross II Man powered Aircraft (US)
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    Hawker P.1127 V/STOL jet (UK)
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    Hillson Bi-mono slip wing (UK)
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    Hiller X-18 tiltwing aircraft (US)
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    North American F-82 Twin Mustang twin fuselage interceptor (US)
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    Leduc 020 ramjet research aircraft (France)
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    Lockheed SR-71 blended fuselage delta (US)
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    McDonnell XF-85 Goblin experimental parasite fighter (US)
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    Mignet Pou de Ciel/Flying Flea tandem wing homebuilt (France)
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    NASA AD-1 pivoting oblique wing (US)
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    NASA Pathfinder experimental unmanned solar-electric aircraft (US)
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    Nord Noratlas pod and boom transport (France)
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    Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit stealth flying wing bomber (US)
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    Piaggio Pc.7 racing seaplane with ski landing gear (Italy)
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    PZL Mielec M-15 Belphegor jet biplane crop duster (Poland)
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    Ryan Fireball mixed propulsion (US)
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    Ryan X-13 Vertijet (US)
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    SAAB Viggen canard fighter (Sweden)
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    Saunders-Roe SR A/1 jet floatplane fighter (UK)
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    Savoia-Marchetti S.55 twin hull flying boat (Italy)
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    Scaled Composites Proteus tandem wing (US)
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    SNECMA Coléoptère ring wing (France)
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    Sud-Ouest Trident experimental ramjet (France)
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    Sukhoi S-37 forward swept wings (USSR)
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    Tom Tom parasite project with 2 F-84s attached by the wingwips to a B-29s (US)
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    Vought V-173 "Flying Pancake" flying saucer (US)
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    Yokosuka MXY-7 Okha rocket powered kamikaze aircraft (Japan)
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    Zveno-2 parasite aircraft project with Tupolev TB-3 (airborne aircraft carrier) and three I-5s (USSR)
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    J.S. Zerbe's Multiplane
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    Horatio Phillips' 1904 Multiplane
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    Horatio Phillips' 1907 Multiplane
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    Chance Vought V-173 "Flying Pancake" (US Navy)
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    Coandă-1910
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    Zerbe Quintaplane
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    Rutan Boomerang, an asymmetric airplane, intended to have less thrust asymmetry if one engine fails than a normal airplane would
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    Rutan SkiGull – parasol-winged airplane that can land on dry land, snow, calm water, and waves; can fly 8 miles on electric power alone
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    Rutan Voyager, first aircraft to circumnavigate Earth without stopping or refueling
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    Boeing YC-14, with high-mounted jet engines to blow air over the upper surface of the wing, increasing lift at low speeds
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    Airbus A³ Vahana, tiltwing VTOL personal aircraft
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    Iranian
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    Société Aérienne Bordelaise, AB-20, France, 1932

Rotorcraft

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    Cornu helicopter.
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    Flettner 282 (1940s, U.S. Air Force)
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    Autogyro mail delivery
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    Hughes H-6 of Guardia di Finanza (Italy)
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    Kamov Ka-26 D-HOAW (CCCP)
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    Jess Dixon's flying car.
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    Sikorsky X-wing
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    Do-32K Kiebitz (unmanned, Germany)
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    Do-34 Kiebitz mit Gefechtsfeldradar (unmanned, Germany)
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    V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft (USA)
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    Lockheed AH-56 Cheyenne compound helicopter (US)
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    Sikorsky S-67 prototype
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    Mil Mi-12, NATO name „Homer“, the largest built helicopter ever (prototype) - also known as V-12, late 1960s, CCCP.
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    KASKR-1 "Red Engineer", a Soviet autogyro, designed by N.I.Kamov and N. K. Skrjinskiy. It was based on a Cierva C.8 autogyro with Soviet U-1 body and an 120 h.p. M-2 engine (1929).
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    Gyrodyne: The Fairey Rotodyne prototype, a combination of helicopter, autogyro and medium distance propeller airliner that never reached series production.
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    Sikorsky Cypher, vertical takeoff and landing aircraft which use two opposing rotors enclosed in a circular shroud for propulsion.
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    Schraubenflugzeug.
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    Piasecki.
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    German autogyro FA330, towed by U-boats
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    Sikorsky CH-54B Skycrane
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Other

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    Manlifter War Kite, constructed by Samuel Franklin Cody (U.K., 1908).
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    Fictional flying contraption using static electricity, an early science fiction image, before 1775.
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    Vélocipédomanie "Voyage à la lune" ("Journey to the moon"), between 1865 and 1870.
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    Airborne Lifeboat in front of Vickers Warwick carrier aircraft (UK)
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    Jet-powered vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) test rig, nicknamed "Flying Bedstead"
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    VTOL testbed
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    Lunar Landing Research Vehicle of the Apollo program, also nicknamed "Flying Bedstead"
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    Alexeyev A-90 Orlyonok Ekranoplan
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    Flying carpet
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    Multiple Kill Vehicle MKV-L, a thruster-propelled vehicle to kill ballistic missile warheads by impact, hovering in a cage during testing
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    OTRAG rocket, one possible configuration. The concept was to assemble rockets of various sizes from identical, low-cost units.

Land (road)

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    Aéromotocyclette (aluminium body with Propeller), made by Alessandro Anzani (France, 1906), Specs: 6 hp internal combustion engine 6 v, 1.50m propeller, 70 kg, 79 km/h.
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    A 1920s propeller driven vehicle
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    propeller car
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    Leyat (1921)
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    Russian two wheel car.
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    Doppelgelenkbus by Van Hool (length: 24.80 m).
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    Electric vehicle "Eliica".
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    Automotrices de la pente d'eau de Montech.
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    Mercedes-Benz Actros truck with six axles
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    Honda Motocompo, Japan.
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    Vehicle at DARPA Grand Challenge contest.
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    Small police car (New Orleans Police).
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    Scammel Scarab
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    Adler Diplomat 3 GS (Germany, 1941) with gas generator.
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    Rumpler-Tropfenwagen (Germany, 1927).
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    Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport open air bus (Mumbai, India, 1928-1930).
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    Cutlass bus (Budapest sightseeing).
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    Fendt F 345 GT, Germany.
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    Segways.
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    Aptera solar powered electric car
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    ParkingHopper op langparkeerplaats P3 (Schiphol).
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    One wheel motorcycle (invented by Italian M. Goventosa from Udine).
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    Camel bus in La Habana, Cuba.
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    Wheelbarrow with motor.
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    Motorcycle with coachwork (Acabion).
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    1911 Reeves Octoauto
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    Casalini Sulky, Italian three-wheeler for disabled folks.
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    w:Knight Bus
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    Canadian ice-tour bus
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    bendy bus
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    Nuclear-powered bendy bus with 75 tons on 32 enormous wheels providing a bowling alley and a pool (prop for the 1976 film The Big Bus)
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    Emergency doc vehicle used by both Austrian and German Red Cross

Unmotorized land vehicles (road)

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Land (off-road)

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    Steampowered tractors.
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    Alaskan land train.
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    Alaska Highway mailtruck.
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    Snowmobile, a tracked vehicle (H555 of the Helsinki Fire Department), Finland.
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    Coanda snow sleigh (Russia)
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    Screw-propelled vehicle.
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    Lenin's Rolls Royce.
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    Bombardier Snowmobile, Canada.
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    Snowcat for people transportation at Silcox Hut, Oregon.
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    Caterpillar tractor used by the first Argentine expedition in 1965 (restored).
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    Storage tank for the use in the Tundra of Alaska, United States.
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    Segelomnibus (Germany).
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    sand yachts: InVentus Ventomobile (front) and ECN Impulse (background)
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    Tracked land rover.
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    French GIGN assault vehicle.
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    Spanish GEO assault vehicle.
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    Pressurized rover for Mars (artist concept)
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    Theo Jansen's Walking Strandbeesten (Beach beasts)
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    Barely one foot from his bare feet are fast rotating blades to crumble the soil. Germany was broke after the war and shoes or boots existed only in fairy tales.
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    Never built, may it also apply? On paper it turned prairie into farmland.
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    Self propelled bridge, that says it all. See Type 81 self propelled bridge
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    Russian S.A.M.
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    Sphereing, also known as globe-riding and Zorbing
    Main category: Zorbing
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    NASA
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    Propeller-driven sled 1930/31
    Main category: Aerosani
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    Propeller-driven sled from Russia (bus)

Land (military)

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    Ballista quadrirotis.
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    Tsar tank.
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    Russian Vezdekhod prototype tank.
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    Flying Elephant - British WWI super-heavy tank project.
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    Improvised polish armoured car (1920)
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    British Vickers Independant Tank.
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    French pre-WII FCM-F1 multi-turreted tank project.
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    German Panzer Neubaufahrzeug in Norway (1940).
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    Universal Carrier Praying Mantis.
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    Soviet T35 multi-turreted tank.
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    British Crusader tank disguised as a dummy lorry.
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    John Deere machine gun tractor (WW II, U.S. Army).
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    Welbike, British Special Operations Executive (WW II).
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    WWII Free French improvised armoured car.
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    Danish resistance improvised armoured car.
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    US Army M520 Goer articulated truck.
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    US Army M561 Gama Goat.
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    A Humvee, equipped with four separate tracks for snow mobility (U.S. Army).
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    GE Quadruped Transporter (Cold War era, U.S. Army).
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    command vehicle

Rail

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    Brunton's Mechanical Traveller I ("Steam Horse locomotive") with legs
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    Baltimore & Ohio Camelback locomotive.
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    Baltimore & Ohio Camelback locomotive.
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    ČHŽ draisine builded on Škoda 1202 chassis.
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    Velocipede (draisine).
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    Another railbike.
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    rail bike
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    w:Shweeb
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    Baustellen-Schienenfahrzeug.
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    French railway car Voiture Ouest à impériale, 1891.
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    HFJ-bussen avgår från Läggesta, kl. 14:13 (Sweden).
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    Beyer Garrett 6594 (India).
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    Freight trolleybus in Saint Petersburg.
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    Schienenzeppelin or rail zeppelin (experimental railcar).
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    Tram snow plow (Vienna, Austria).
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    1931 British double-decker tram, used in Leeds.
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    McKeen gasoline-engined switching locomotive, 1921.
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    Turmwagen.
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    SBB "Tintenfisch" Ta 974, Akkumulatortraktor mit Magnetpuffern für den Werkstätteverschub.
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    Motordraisine Klv-12 (12-4904) Deutsche Bahn.
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    Bangor and Aroostook Railroad snowplow (defunct), Maine en.
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    White Pass and Yukon Route steam powered Snow blower (USA).
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    Speeder aka railway motor car, putt-putt, track-maintenance car, crew car or jigger (USA).
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    Draisine, Canada, between 1920 and 1950.
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    Bicycle Railway (1890s, United Kingdom)
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    Opel Olympia from 1953 (Harsfeld, Germany)
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    Replica of Spooner's boat, Ffestiniog Railway
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    "The Siamese Twin" Locomotive on the Lartigue Monorailway, Ballybunion
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    ditto
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    McKeen Locomotive of the Los Angeles & San Diego Beach Railway "La Jolla Line", USA, c. 1910.
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    Brighton and Rottingdean Seashore Electric Railway, a seagoing railway that existed in Brighton, UK, brtween 1896 and 1901
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    An ULTra PRT vehicle on a test track at Heathrow Airport, London


Rail (military)

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    Rail plough being used to dismantle rail line in March 1944
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    Ukraine
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    ACW siegegun.
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    ACW siegegun (rear view).
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    Tank train of the Red Guards in the Finnish civil war, 1918.
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    US Army railjeep.
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    Wehrmacht, Kräder fahren auf Schienen.
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    Armored trolley Tatra T-18

Street and/or Rail

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Water

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Unusual propulsion

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    Ox-powered paddle boat from 4th-century Rome
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    Early watercraft construction by Leonardo da Vinci.
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    Airboat: propelled by a fan, there's nothing to tangle with vegetation that may be in the water. This one is from the 1940s; modern airboats are similar.
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    1920 "Scooter" airboat by aircraft engineer Glenn Curtiss
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    1924 French airboat "Le Ricocheur" made by Farman Aircraft
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    Rotor ship (Alcyone, France)
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    SS Great Eastern, combining paddle wheels, sails and a screw.
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    Ferry on submerged rails, Merwedekanaal, the Netherlands
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    Chain boat towing barges on the Seine. It pulls itself upstream using a chain laid along the riverbed.
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    Zeuner auxiliary propulsion system for chain boats. The dark bulge in the middle contains a water pump. This was used instead of the chain when going downstream.

Unusual purpose

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    Prisoner transport ship (Venice, Italy).
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    Jack-up crane ship, used to install offshore wind turbines
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    Jack-up barges, used to remove shipwrecks. In front appears to be a hydroplaning watercraft.
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    Sea-Based X-band Radar (SBX) of the Missile Defense Agency
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    Semi-submersible heavy-lift ship (MV Blue Marlin, Marlin class) carrying SBX
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    Drillship (Joides Resolution, used for the Ocean Drilling Program, U.S.A.)

Unusual material

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    Concrete Ships
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    Project Habakkuk: proposed aircraft carrier made of pykrete (ice reinforced with wood fiber), intended to be difficult to sink

Amphibious

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    transporter
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    Amphibious car Amphi-Ranger 2800SR.
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    Amphibious Schwimmwagen (Wehrmacht).
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    LARC-XV, BARC (U.S. Army).
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    SR.N4 Mountbatten Class Hovercraft.
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    A hovercraft (LCAC = landing craft, air cushioned), used by the U.S. Navy.
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    Amphicar in Stuttgart, Germany.
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    Hovercraft Vector 2.
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    R.L.Bartini VVA-14 (Ekranoplan, Soviet Union).
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    WIK Type A (Ekranoplan).
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    Landing Vehicle Tracked a.k.a. amphtrack, amtrak, amtrac etc., a portmanteau of amphibious tractor (LVT).
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    Rice planting machine made by Yanmar.
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    Beach carriage. See also Mudflat carriages.
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    No, it's not a sinking boat. It rides on tracks. See also Sea-going tractors.
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    Beach carriage. See also Sea-going tractors.
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    Cultivating the paddy fields. These things are dangerous… they have a reverse gear, you know.
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    Bathing machine (this one used by Queen Victoria)
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    Bathing machine in use
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    TOAD

Miscellaneous - unsorted

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    Drawing of a proposed Flying submarine, Soviet Union during World War II
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    Sea-going tractor, UK.
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    Bus as ski lift: The SkyWay at Timberline Lodge ski area, Oregon, USA, 1940s.
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    Ultralight trike fixed to an inflatable dingy.
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    Glider floatplane.
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    Snowplane.
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    Alfred Ely Beach's experimental pneumatic elevated subway (1867).
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    Spratt.
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    Buddhist-Styled hearse (Lincoln Town Car, seen in Japan).
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    future truck design

Funny

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    Charvolant (early kitesailer as an automobile).
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    Ostrich drawn cart.
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    Zebras als Zugtiere.
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    Truthahn als Zugtier.
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    Vintage pedal car.
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    Cycle Pub of Bend, Oregon
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