Unusual vehicles

Беларуская: Незвычайныя транспартныя сродкi

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Deutsch: Ungewöhnlich konstruierte Fahrzeuge

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English: Unusual vehicles

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Русский: Необычные транспортные средства

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Aircraft and spacecraft

Ornithopters

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  Design for a flying machine, Codex Atlanticus f.844r is a drawing by Leonardo da Vinci.
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  Design for a flying machine Codex Atlanticus f.858r is a drawing by Leonardo da Vinci.
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  Goya
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  Edward Frost of Cambridgeshire, England, constructed an ornithopter of willow, silk, and feathers in 1902.
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  Ornithopter designed by Sean Kinkade, 1998

Fixed-wing aircraft

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  White Knight spaceplane
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  Aero-Spacelines Super Guppy (US)
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  Antonov A-40 flying tank glider (USSR)
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  Airbus Beluga (France)
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  AVE Mizar (US)
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  Bachem Natter vertical launch interceptor (Germany)
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  Bell X-22 experimental VTOL (US)
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  Blohm & Voss BV 141 asymmetrical (Germany)
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  Boeing X-48B blended wing (US)
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  Burgess-Dunne tailless biplane (UK & US)
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  Burnelli CB-16 lifting fuselage (US & Canada)
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  Caproni Ca.60 Noviplano nine-wing flying boat (Italy)
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  Caproni-Stipa ducted fan (Italy)
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  Caproni Campini N.1 thermojet (Italy)
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  Columban CriCri (France)
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  Convair XFY-1 VTOL fighter (US)
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  Convair NB-36H Nuclear powered aircraft (US)
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  Douglas X-3 Stiletto (US)
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  Gossamer Albatross II Man powered Aircraft (US)
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  Hawker P.1127 V/STOL jet (UK)
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  Hillson Bi-mono slip wing (UK)
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  Hiller X-18 tiltwing aircraft (US)
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  North American F-82 Twin Mustang twin fuselage interceptor (US)
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  Leduc 020 ramjet research aircraft (France)
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  Lockheed SR-71 blended fuselage delta (US)
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  McDonnell XF-85 Goblin experimental parasite fighter (US)
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  Mignet Pou de Ciel/Flying Flea tandem wing homebuilt (France)
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  NASA AD-1 pivoting oblique wing (US)
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  NASA Pathfinder experimental unmanned solar-electric aircraft (US)
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  Nord Noratlas pod and boom transport (France)
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  Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit stealth flying wing bomber (US)
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  Piaggio Pc.7 racing seaplane with ski landing gear (Italy)
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  PZL Mielec M-15 Belphegor jet biplane crop duster (Poland)
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  Ryan Fireball mixed propulsion (US)
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  Ryan X-13 Vertijet (US)
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  SAAB Viggen canard fighter (Sweden)
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  Saunders-Roe SR A/1 jet floatplane fighter (UK)
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  Savoia-Marchetti S.55 twin hull flying boat (Italy)
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  Scaled Composites Proteus tandem wing (US)
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  SNECMA Coléoptère ring wing (France)
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  Sud-Ouest Trident experimental ramjet (France)
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  Sukhoi S-37 forward swept wings (USSR)
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  Tom Tom parasite project with 2 F-84s attached by the wingwips to a B-29s (US)
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  Vought V-173 "Flying Pancake" flying saucer (US)
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  Yokosuka MXY-7 Okha rocket powered kamikaze aircraft (Japan)
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  Zveno-2 parasite aircraft project with Tupolev TB-3 (airborne aircraft carrier) and three I-5s (USSR)
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  J.S. Zerbe's Multiplane
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  Horatio Phillips' 1904 Multiplane
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  Horatio Phillips' 1907 Multiplane
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  Chance Vought V-173 "Flying Pancake" (US Navy)
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  Coandă-1910
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  Zerbe Quintaplane
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  Rutan Boomerang, an asymmetric airplane, intended to have less thrust asymmetry if one engine fails than a normal airplane would
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  Rutan SkiGull – parasol-winged airplane that can land on dry land, snow, calm water, and waves; can fly 8 miles on electric power alone
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  Rutan Voyager, first aircraft to circumnavigate Earth without stopping or refueling
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  Boeing YC-14, with high-mounted jet engines to blow air over the upper surface of the wing, increasing lift at low speeds
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  Airbus A³ Vahana, tiltwing VTOL personal aircraft
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  Iranian
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  Société Aérienne Bordelaise, AB-20, France, 1932

Rotorcraft

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  Cornu helicopter.
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  Flettner 282 (1940s, U.S. Air Force)
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  Autogyro mail delivery
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  Hughes H-6 of Guardia di Finanza (Italy)
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  Kamov Ka-26 D-HOAW (CCCP)
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  Jess Dixon's flying car.
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  Sikorsky X-wing
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  Do-32K Kiebitz (unmanned, Germany)
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  Do-34 Kiebitz mit Gefechtsfeldradar (unmanned, Germany)
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  V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft (USA)
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  Lockheed AH-56 Cheyenne compound helicopter (US)
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  Sikorsky S-67 prototype
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  Mil Mi-12, NATO name „Homer“, the largest built helicopter ever (prototype) - also known as V-12, late 1960s, CCCP.
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  KASKR-1 "Red Engineer", a Soviet autogyro, designed by N.I.Kamov and N. K. Skrjinskiy. It was based on a Cierva C.8 autogyro with Soviet U-1 body and an 120 h.p. M-2 engine (1929).
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  Gyrodyne: The Fairey Rotodyne prototype, a combination of helicopter, autogyro and medium distance propeller airliner that never reached series production.
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  Sikorsky Cypher, vertical takeoff and landing aircraft which use two opposing rotors enclosed in a circular shroud for propulsion.
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  Schraubenflugzeug.
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  Piasecki.
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  German autogyro FA330, towed by U-boats
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  Sikorsky CH-54B Skycrane
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Other

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  Manlifter War Kite, constructed by Samuel Franklin Cody (U.K., 1908).
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  Fictional flying contraption using static electricity, an early science fiction image, before 1775.
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  Vélocipédomanie "Voyage à la lune" ("Journey to the moon"), between 1865 and 1870.
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  Airborne Lifeboat in front of Vickers Warwick carrier aircraft (UK)
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  Jet-powered vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) test rig, nicknamed "Flying Bedstead"
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  VTOL testbed
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  Lunar Landing Research Vehicle of the Apollo program, also nicknamed "Flying Bedstead"
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  Alexeyev A-90 Orlyonok Ekranoplan
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  Flying carpet
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  Multiple Kill Vehicle MKV-L, a thruster-propelled vehicle to kill ballistic missile warheads by impact, hovering in a cage during testing
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  OTRAG rocket, one possible configuration. The concept was to assemble rockets of various sizes from identical, low-cost units.

Land (road)

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  Aéromotocyclette (aluminium body with Propeller), made by Alessandro Anzani (France, 1906), Specs: 6 hp internal combustion engine 6 v, 1.50m propeller, 70 kg, 79 km/h.
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  A 1920s propeller driven vehicle
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  propeller car
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  Leyat (1921)
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  Russian two wheel car.
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  Doppelgelenkbus by Van Hool (length: 24.80 m).
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  Electric vehicle "Eliica".
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  Automotrices de la pente d'eau de Montech.
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  Mercedes-Benz Actros truck with six axles
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  Honda Motocompo, Japan.
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  Vehicle at DARPA Grand Challenge contest.
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  Small police car (New Orleans Police).
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  Scammel Scarab
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  Adler Diplomat 3 GS (Germany, 1941) with gas generator.
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  Rumpler-Tropfenwagen (Germany, 1927).
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  Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport open air bus (Mumbai, India, 1928-1930).
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  Cutlass bus (Budapest sightseeing).
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  Fendt F 345 GT, Germany.
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  Segways.
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  Aptera solar powered electric car
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  ParkingHopper op langparkeerplaats P3 (Schiphol).
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  One wheel motorcycle (invented by Italian M. Goventosa from Udine).
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  Camel bus in La Habana, Cuba.
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  Wheelbarrow with motor.
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  Motorcycle with coachwork (Acabion).
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  1911 Reeves Octoauto
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  Casalini Sulky, Italian three-wheeler for disabled folks.
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  w:Knight Bus
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  Canadian ice-tour bus
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  bendy bus
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  Nuclear-powered bendy bus with 75 tons on 32 enormous wheels providing a bowling alley and a pool (prop for the 1976 film The Big Bus)
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  Emergency doc vehicle used by both Austrian and German Red Cross

Unmotorized land vehicles (road)

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  Pedalo Air Combi
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  South-pointing chariot
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  Airwheel E3
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  Liliputkutsche, 1903.
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  Walkmobile
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  Bicycle with two riders beneath.
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  Bennett buggy
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  Wheelbarrow with sails (nearby 西安 - Xi'an, China, early 20th century).
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  Sail wagon.
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  Sideways sitting bicycle.
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  w:de:Roller Buggy
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  Quadracycle with wheels of different sizes in diamond formation
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  Party bike with beer tap

Land (off-road)

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  Steampowered tractors.
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  Alaskan land train.
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  Alaska Highway mailtruck.
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  Snowmobile, a tracked vehicle (H555 of the Helsinki Fire Department), Finland.
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  Coanda snow sleigh (Russia)
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  Screw-propelled vehicle.
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  Lenin's Rolls Royce.
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  Bombardier Snowmobile, Canada.
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  Snowcat for people transportation at Silcox Hut, Oregon.
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  Caterpillar tractor used by the first Argentine expedition in 1965 (restored).
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  Storage tank for the use in the Tundra of Alaska, United States.
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  Segelomnibus (Germany).
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  sand yachts: InVentus Ventomobile (front) and ECN Impulse (background)
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  Tracked land rover.
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  French GIGN assault vehicle.
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  Spanish GEO assault vehicle.
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  Pressurized rover for Mars (artist concept)
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  Theo Jansen's Walking Strandbeesten (Beach beasts)
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  Barely one foot from his bare feet are fast rotating blades to crumble the soil. Germany was broke after the war and shoes or boots existed only in fairy tales.
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  Never built, may it also apply? On paper it turned prairie into farmland.
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  Self propelled bridge, that says it all. See Type 81 self propelled bridge
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  Russian S.A.M.
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  Sphereing, also known as globe-riding and Zorbing

  Main category: Zorbing
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  NASA
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  Propeller-driven sled 1930/31

  Main category: Aerosani
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  Propeller-driven sled from Russia (bus)

Land (military)

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  Ballista quadrirotis.
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  Tsar tank.
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  Russian Vezdekhod prototype tank.
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  Flying Elephant - British WWI super-heavy tank project.
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  Improvised polish armoured car (1920)
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  British Vickers Independant Tank.
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  French pre-WII FCM-F1 multi-turreted tank project.
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  German Panzer Neubaufahrzeug in Norway (1940).
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  Universal Carrier Praying Mantis.
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  Soviet T35 multi-turreted tank.
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  British Crusader tank disguised as a dummy lorry.
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  John Deere machine gun tractor (WW II, U.S. Army).
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  Welbike, British Special Operations Executive (WW II).
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  WWII Free French improvised armoured car.
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  Danish resistance improvised armoured car.
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  US Army M520 Goer articulated truck.
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  US Army M561 Gama Goat.
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  A Humvee, equipped with four separate tracks for snow mobility (U.S. Army).
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  GE Quadruped Transporter (Cold War era, U.S. Army).
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  command vehicle

Rail

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  Brunton's Mechanical Traveller I ("Steam Horse locomotive") with legs
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  Baltimore & Ohio Camelback locomotive.
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  Baltimore & Ohio Camelback locomotive.
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  ČHŽ draisine builded on Škoda 1202 chassis.
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  Velocipede (draisine).
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  Another railbike.
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  rail bike
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  w:Shweeb
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  Baustellen-Schienenfahrzeug.
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  French railway car Voiture Ouest à impériale, 1891.
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  HFJ-bussen avgår från Läggesta, kl. 14:13 (Sweden).
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  Beyer Garrett 6594 (India).
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  Freight trolleybus in Saint Petersburg.
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  Schienenzeppelin or rail zeppelin (experimental railcar).
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  Tram snow plow (Vienna, Austria).
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  1931 British double-decker tram, used in Leeds.
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  McKeen gasoline-engined switching locomotive, 1921.
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  Turmwagen.
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  SBB "Tintenfisch" Ta 974, Akkumulatortraktor mit Magnetpuffern für den Werkstätteverschub.
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  Motordraisine Klv-12 (12-4904) Deutsche Bahn.
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  Bangor and Aroostook Railroad snowplow (defunct), Maine en.
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  White Pass and Yukon Route steam powered Snow blower (USA).
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  Speeder aka railway motor car, putt-putt, track-maintenance car, crew car or jigger (USA).
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  Draisine, Canada, between 1920 and 1950.
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  Bicycle Railway (1890s, United Kingdom)
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  Opel Olympia from 1953 (Harsfeld, Germany)
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  Replica of Spooner's boat, Ffestiniog Railway
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  "The Siamese Twin" Locomotive on the Lartigue Monorailway, Ballybunion
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  ditto
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  McKeen Locomotive of the Los Angeles & San Diego Beach Railway "La Jolla Line", USA, c. 1910.
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  Brighton and Rottingdean Seashore Electric Railway, a seagoing railway that existed in Brighton, UK, brtween 1896 and 1901
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  An ULTra PRT vehicle on a test track at Heathrow Airport, London

Rail (military)

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  Rail plough being used to dismantle rail line in March 1944
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  Ukraine
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  ACW siegegun.
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  ACW siegegun (rear view).
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  Tank train of the Red Guards in the Finnish civil war, 1918.
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  US Army railjeep.
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  Wehrmacht, Kräder fahren auf Schienen.
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  Armored trolley Tatra T-18

Street and/or Rail

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  Aerotrain im Technik Museum Speyer
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  Monorail, Brennan & Scherl (1907)
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  A SEPTA Subway–Surface trolley car travels along Market Street tunnel in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (2007).
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  Unfallhilfsfahrzeug der Münchner Verkehrsgesellschaft für Straßenbahnen.
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  Road-rail vehicle (Unimog on rails).
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  Road-rail vehicle (Unimog).
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  Railway Land-Rover.

Water

Unusual propulsion

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  Ox-powered paddle boat from 4th-century Rome
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  Early watercraft construction by Leonardo da Vinci.
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  Airboat: propelled by a fan, there's nothing to tangle with vegetation that may be in the water. This one is from the 1940s; modern airboats are similar.
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  1920 "Scooter" airboat by aircraft engineer Glenn Curtiss
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  1924 French airboat "Le Ricocheur" made by Farman Aircraft
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  Rotor ship (Alcyone, France)
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  SS Great Eastern, combining paddle wheels, sails and a screw.
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  Ferry on submerged rails, Merwedekanaal, the Netherlands
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  Chain boat towing barges on the Seine. It pulls itself upstream using a chain laid along the riverbed.
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  Zeuner auxiliary propulsion system for chain boats. The dark bulge in the middle contains a water pump. This was used instead of the chain when going downstream.

Unusual purpose

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  Prisoner transport ship (Venice, Italy).
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  Jack-up crane ship, used to install offshore wind turbines
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  Jack-up barges, used to remove shipwrecks. In front appears to be a hydroplaning watercraft.
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  Sea-Based X-band Radar (SBX) of the Missile Defense Agency
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  Semi-submersible heavy-lift ship (MV Blue Marlin, Marlin class) carrying SBX
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  Drillship (Joides Resolution, used for the Ocean Drilling Program, U.S.A.)

Unusual material

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  Concrete Ships
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  Project Habakkuk: proposed aircraft carrier made of pykrete (ice reinforced with wood fiber), intended to be difficult to sink

Amphibious

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  transporter
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  Amphibious car Amphi-Ranger 2800SR.
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  Amphibious Schwimmwagen (Wehrmacht).
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  LARC-XV, BARC (U.S. Army).
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  SR.N4 Mountbatten Class Hovercraft.
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  A hovercraft (LCAC = landing craft, air cushioned), used by the U.S. Navy.
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  Amphicar in Stuttgart, Germany.
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  Hovercraft Vector 2.
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  R.L.Bartini VVA-14 (Ekranoplan, Soviet Union).
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  WIK Type A (Ekranoplan).
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  Landing Vehicle Tracked a.k.a. amphtrack, amtrak, amtrac etc., a portmanteau of amphibious tractor (LVT).
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  Rice planting machine made by Yanmar.
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  Beach carriage. See also Mudflat carriages.
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  No, it's not a sinking boat. It rides on tracks. See also Sea-going tractors.
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  Beach carriage. See also Sea-going tractors.
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  Cultivating the paddy fields. These things are dangerous… they have a reverse gear, you know.
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  Bathing machine (this one used by Queen Victoria)
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  Bathing machine in use
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  TOAD

Miscellaneous - unsorted

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  Drawing of a proposed Flying submarine, Soviet Union during World War II
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  Sea-going tractor, UK.
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  Bus as ski lift: The SkyWay at Timberline Lodge ski area, Oregon, USA, 1940s.
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  Ultralight trike fixed to an inflatable dingy.
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  Glider floatplane.
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  Snowplane.
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  Alfred Ely Beach's experimental pneumatic elevated subway (1867).
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  Spratt.
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  Buddhist-Styled hearse (Lincoln Town Car, seen in Japan).
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  future truck design

Funny

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  Charvolant (early kitesailer as an automobile).
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  Ostrich drawn cart.
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  Zebras als Zugtiere.
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  Truthahn als Zugtier.
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  Vintage pedal car.
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  Cycle Pub of Bend, Oregon