US Interwar Christie 1919 Tank

Walter Christie was a talented and experienced American engineer and auto racer. He submitted a design and working prototype of a revolutionary tank to the US Army in 1919 as part of the US Army’s quest for a modern, domestic tank to replace its WW1 French FT-17 light tanks and Mark VIII “International” heavy tanks. These tanks were slow, lumbering beasts. They were so unreliable that they were transported to the start point on trucks and required frequent overhauls. His design was a remarkable departure from existing designs and tried to solve these problems by running on wheels at speed on roads and switching to tracks for cross-county mobility. It could reach speeds of 7mph (11 km/h) cross county on its tracks, and 13mph (21 km/h) on its road wheels and was armed with a 6-pounder (57mm) gun, and a co-axial .30 caliber machine gun in a round turret. When running on wheels, the center bogies were raised up off the ground. As neither the front ground nor the rear drive wheels had a suspension system, the ride was brutally rough. The testing was halted and Christie returned to the drawing board to work on a tank suspension system that would eventually find its was into the British cruiser tanks and the Russian BT and T-34 tanks.