
John Berkey and the Mechanical Planet - curtis
https://kitbashed.com/blog/john-berkey
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Animats
Yes, Lucas's walkers come from U.S. Steel's pictures of future walkers for
snow use, which came from the General Electric walking truck.[1] The walking
truck was really an exoskeleton; the human driver was doing all the control.

A big thing in the 1960s was operating in the Arctic, where the US and Canada
were building chains of radar stations. Hence the U.S. Steel snow walker. The
US Army had LeTorneau build several "overland trains", the largest being 170
meters long, with 54 powered wheels. [2] They look like something Lucas would
have put in a movie. Worked fine, but were never deployed; heavy-lift
helicopters became available.

The history of giant military ground vehicles is like that - they can be
built, but are seldom useful. One of the lessons of tank design is that if it
can't cross a standard bridge, ride on a standard railroad car, and drive on a
standard road, it won't make it to the battle. In the 1940s and 1950s, all the
players built prototype monster tanks, but nobody went beyond prototypes.

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coNO9FpDb6E](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coNO9FpDb6E)

[2] [https://www.warhistoryonline.com/military-vehicle-
news/the-g...](https://www.warhistoryonline.com/military-vehicle-news/the-
gigantic-180-meter-long-us-army-land-trains-of-the-1950s.html)

