The Soviet Flying Tank — The Antonov KT-40During World War II paratroopers were ideal for cond

The Soviet Flying Tank — The Antonov KT-40During World War II paratroopers were ideal for conducting harassing attacks behind enemy lines and capturing key positions at the beginning of a military campaign.  However paratroopers can only bring into battle what they carry on their backs.  Thus, paratroopers are typically short on heavy equipment, important things like heavy machine guns, artillery, vehicles, and tanks.  To solve this problem, the Soviet Antonov Bureau designed the KT-40 in 1940.The KT-40, nicknamed the “flying tank”, consisted of a T-60 light tank outfitted with a pair of wooden fabric wings.  It was planned that the flying tanks would be towed into the air by larger aircraft, then release when they reached their drop zone.  Once released the tank would glide to its destination, hopefully landing safely with its treads acting as landing gear.  The wooden wings would then be removed so that the tank could roll on into battle.Only one KT-40 prototype was produced in 1942 and tested.  The KT-40 didn’t exactly fly gracefully as drag and weight cause the engines of the tow plane to quickly overheat.  The KT-40 was released early but landed safely, being piloted by the Soviet tank driver Sergei Anokin.  The KT-40 design was considered a failure and scrapped as there was no plane in the Soviet Union powerful enough tow the 6 ton tank.  Attempts were made to lighten the tank by stripping it of armor and weapons, but this would have made it too vulnerable to German guns. -- source link

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