Welcome to a list of ten of the most bizarre inventions from the Cold War era. Some of these shouldn’t have been built while some of them were built for reasons that are strange. Nonetheless, enjoy the inventions from the Cold War era!
The top-secret military has been compared to a lot of things in the years since it was declassified. It was designed to travel at the highest of altitudes and at the fastest of speeds while marking the start of a new military era. However, it didn’t work! The pilots simply hated flying this difficult aircraft and said that its handling ability was similar to ‘balancing on a beach ball.’ It was able to achieve a top speed of only 35mph and a maximum altitude of only 3 feet.
During the Cold War, both the USSR and the US were focused on incorporating nuclear technology into any weapon that they could manage. Surprisingly, it wasn’t only these two; British also had the same idea and came up with the idea of a revolutionizing weapon – nuclear chickens. The military scientists were looking for means to make sure that the landmines remained warm underground in order to prevent premature detonation. They proposed the idea of placing live chickens inside the device thus providing them with a consistent heat source. Thankfully, this idea never came to be, and chickens were saved!
The de Lackner Aerocycle was given the go-ahead by the US military to enhance troop transportation. It was a propeller-powered reconnaissance contraption that was built so that troops could be transported to the battlefield quickly. It was touted as the ‘personal helicopter’ and was designed so that even the inexperienced pilots with only a 20-minute training could fly. However, the project was canceled after a number of crashes.
This was put forward by the Reagan administration in 1983. The Strategic Defense Initiative – given the name Star Wars by the opponents – was supposed to be an anti-ballistic missile system that would have made use of space-age technologies for destroying the incoming ICBMs. The scientists in charge, however, admitted that technology required to pull it off was decades away.
Progev-T Gasdynamic Trawler
This tank might look like something from H.G. Wells novel, it was actually constructed by USSR and was an armored vehicle that was designed actually to prevent casualties from happening. It featured a MiG-15 engine on its top. The Progev-T would fire kerosene jet blasts for destroying landmines and was able to clear a four-mile area with a single tank of fuel.
The Russians built the corkscrew tank with the intention of creating a vehicle that was able to carry out combat in sub-arctic climates. The corkscrew tank featured screw-propelled cylinders that enabled it to traverse even the toughest of terrains. However, the corkscrew tank didn’t have any prowess on the battlefield and was not only small in size but also had weak weapons.
This was the first of many ‘tail-sitter’ fighter planes. It was designed and constructed to be able to launch and land vertically in case a landing strip or the aircraft carrier was compromised. Sadly, it was difficult to handle, slow, and had very little firepower.
Gloster Meteor F8 ‘Prone Pilot’
The British also had some amazing ideas about how to achieve supremacy in aerial combat. They designed this jet to achieve high-speeds by enabling pilots to withstand higher g-forces. The pilots would lie down to fly the plane. You can see why the plane didn’t take off! (Pun intended).
Russia’s Star Wars
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev saw the US’s Star Wars as a threat despite its failure. This led the Russians to work on their own ‘Star Wars’ program to prevent the US from launching its satellites. The program featured ground-based energy weapons that were designed to blast the US satellites.
France also took part in the arms race during the Cold War and conducted the first flight test on one of the first ramjet-powered crafts in 1947. Controlled explosion because of atmospheric air making contact with the fuel within the engine caused the propulsion of the jet. However, by the time the technology was masters; the world had already moved on to faster and more efficient aircraft.