Holt gas electric tank

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Holt Gas-Electric Tank
General characteristics
Crew 6
Length 5.03 m
Width 2.76 m
Height 2.37 m
Weight 25.4 t
Armour and armament
Armour 6 - 15 mm
Main armament 75 mm Vickers mountain howitzer
Secondary armament two Browning 7.92 mm machine guns
Mobility
Power plant Holt gasoline plus 2 electric motors
90 hp (67 kW)
Suspension vertical coil springs
Road speed 10 km/h
Power/weight 3.5 hp/tonne
Range  ?

The Holt Gas-Electric Tank was an early U.S. produced tank built in a collaboration between the Holt Manufacturing Company (now Caterpillar Inc.) and the U.S. General Electric Company. It was the first real tank to be constructed in the USA.

The prototype was constructed during 1917 and finished early in 1918. It used a lengthened and modified version of the suspension of the Holt tractors, with pivoting track frames. There were ten road wheels at each side. The tank had a height of 7 feet 9.5 inches, a length of 16 feet 6 inches and a width of 9 feet 1 inch.

The vehicle had a Holt 90 hp, 4-cylinder engine fitted with a GEC generator driving an electric motor for each track; a comparable petro-electric system had earlier been used for the French St Chamond that also was fitted with a lengthened Holt suspension. To prevent overheating of the transmission — a constant problem with electrical types — a complicated water cooling system had been installed. Like the French tank, the Holt Gas-Electric had a 75 mm gun in the nose; it had a sponson with a removable 0.30 inch machine gun at each side and a ball-mount for one in the front. The engine and transmission were at the back, next to a corridor leading to the only door. The crew number is often given as six, on the assumption there would be two machine gunners, a gunner and loader for the main gun, a driver and a commander.

Only one was built as tests showed its climbing performance was unsatisfactory and the type proved to be much heavier than originally envisaged: about 25 short tons.


World War I tanks
British tanks
Mark I - Mark V series - Mark VIII - Mark IX
Medium Mk A Whippet - Medium Mark B - Medium Mark C
French tanks
Renault FT-17 - St. Chamond - Schneider CA1 - Char 2C
German tanks
A7V
Italian tanks
Fiat 2000
Experimental designs
Flying Elephant - Tsar Tank - LK I - LK II - Mark VI - Mark VII - K-Wagen - Sturmpanzerwagen Oberschlesien - Holt Gas-Electric Tank - Steam Tank (Tracked)
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