The Vezdekhod

[David]

In the literature of the 1960- and 70-ies years it was usually stated, that the Vezdekhod was the first prototype of the tank, but the inert imperial administration has prevented the inventor. Even images of the high-grade fighting machine were shown. Actually the Vezdekhod did not gone further than a pre-production model, and as the reason for this was the simply the problems in the design. Most of the detail in the history of the Vezdekhod can be found in Leonid Fedoseyev's book "Tanks of the First World War".



Picture from Soviet magazine from 1970-ies

In August, 1914 23-year old aircraft inventor Alexander Porokhovshchikov offered to build a cross-country vehicle. Drawings and the estimate were ready to 9th January 1915. On 13th January, OK was given for the construction was given. The supervision of the project was done by the military engineer polkovnik (colonel) Poklevskij-Kozello.



2. Alexander Porokhovshchikov


The welded skeleton of the Vezdekhod ran on a single wide caterpillar made from the rubberized fabric. This caterpillar was stretched on four drums. The fifth drum pressed the caterpillar track from above. Two small wheels were placed on the sides of the caterpillar. They were controlled by means of a steering wheel. The machine had streamlined surfaces with a big air inlet in front.



3. Picture from magazine "Tankist" No 5, 1952
Legend: 1 √ Skeleton; 2 √ Carried drum; 3 √ Drum with tension gear; 4 √ Pressure Drum; 5 √ Fabric caterpillar; 6 √ Side wheel; 7 √ Steering wheel; 8 √ Seat; 9 √ Engine; 10 √ Transmission shaft; 11 √ Body; 12 √ Turret (You can see, that the turret was indicated with dotted lines only)

The carburettor engine (capacity 10 h.p.) through the gear-box rotated a back drum. Specific pressure upon a ground should be no more than 0,05 kg /sq.m. Three ring flutes on the drums prevented the shifting of the caterpillar. One of the ideas of the innovator, was that on a firm ground the machine should move on the back drum and wheels. On a soft ground the machine would lay down on the caterpillar. The wheels should operate as a rudder on a ship or a plane.

Construction of the machine began in February, 1915. The first tests on hard road was done in the 18th of May. Tests proceeded up until the end of year. In cross-country trials the vehicle did not shown those properties that the inventor had promised. It quite simply was not possible to steer by the machine using the wheels. The project was thus rejected. It is necessary to note, that in the project no words were spoken about arms. In the spring of 1915 Porokhovshchikov also offered the project of "the iron armor". It was made from two sheets of iron with a layer of a dried sea grass between them. The automobile "Ford" was armored for testing purposes with "iron armor". But note that the project of the "iron armor" was not connected with the Vezdekhod.



4. AC "Ford" with "iron armor", Porokhovshchikov's other project.

However, when Russian newspapers published the news about the first English tanks, Porokhovshchikov declared, that he was the inventor of the tank, with the Vezdekhod being the very first tank. He did develop the project Vezdekhod-2 with a turret and 3 machine guns. However, that project was so crude, that it was rejected off hand.



5. The Vezdekhod-2 project.

After the Revolution the idea that the first tank was invented in Russia was picked up by the Soviet propaganda and became a Soviet myth. Porohovshchikov himself was executed by the NKVD, either in 1941 or 1943, for "expenditure of public funds for unnecessary inventions".


6. Photo of the real Vezdekhod.