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The Real Metal Gear [Feature]
from Kotaku by Luke Plunkett13 people liked this MetalGear Solid: Peace Walker is a tale of giant robots and Cold War drama.It may be fantasy, but did you know that in the early 1960s, the USmilitary actually had a giant robot?
Meet the \"Beetle\".
Built by Jered Industries in Detroit for General Electric's ominous— and very Metal Gear-sounding — Nuclear Materials and PropulsionOperation division, the Beetle was a mechanical terror designed for theAir Force Special Weapons Centre, initially to service and maintain aplanned fleet of atomic-powered Air Force bombers. According todeclassified Air Force reports, work began on the \"mech\" in 1959, andit was completed in 1961.
Unlike the fictional Metal Gears, the Beetle didn't try and walk ontwo legs. It was piloted, and not an AI. It never tried to destroy theworld, either. But its history, design, construction and operation areall so eerily similar to that of \"actual\" units from the Metal Gearuniverse that fans of the series should find it fascinating, especiallygiven the timeliness of the Beetle's existence in parallel with theShagohod, from Metal Gear Solid 3's Cold War drama.
Shagohod was a giant Soviet war machine, and like the Beetle, was aproduct of the Cold War. It shared a focus on nuclear weapons and anobsession with the promise of the atomic age, was piloted by a singleman, heavily armoured, shrouded in secrecy and also ditched cumbersomelegs in favour of a more down-to-earth propulsion system, thoughShagohod employed \"screws\" instead of conventional tracks (the Beetle, meanwhile, was built atop the treads and body of an M-42 \"Duster\", a mobile anti-aircraft vehicle).
While Shagohod was a threat to world peace – especially given plansto export the vehicle overseas to enemies of the US – the Beetlecouldn't have been more peaceful if it tried. Shagohod's primarypurpose was to serve as a launch platform for nuclear weapons. TheBeetle's was to…repair and maintain engines, and when the atomicaircraft project was cancelled in 1961, it was earmarked by the USmilitary for a role in cleaning up the debris caused by a nuclearexplosion.
Because the Beetle was first conceived to fix aircraft engines thatwould be soaked in radiation, it had to be nuclear-proof. Because thesewould be big aircraft, with large parts that were high offthe ground, the Beetle had to be big as well. And because the actualduties it was to perform would require a great deal of precision andfinesse, the Beetle was given two arms with pincers for \"hands\", whichis where the \"Beetle\" name originates.
All of which explain why the Beetle was a colossal 19 feet long, 12feet wide, 11 feet high and weighed a ground-shaking 77 tons. The pilotwas shielded by an inch of steel armour on the outside of the unit,half-an-inch inside and a minimum of 12 inches of lead plating aroundthe cabin, which would keep him shielded from all but the most intenseblasts of radiation. On top of all that, the cockpit glass was 23inches thick, and was made up of seven individual panes of leaded glass.
To actually drive the Beetle, then, the pilot couldn't just pop opena hatch and jump in. The canopy, which weighed 15,000 pounds, had to beraised by hydraulic lifts then lowered onto guidance rods, a processwhich took several minutes. Once inside, despite cramped conditions,the pilot had some degree of comfort, with a small TV set, airconditioning and even an ashtray, should the stress of dealing with theremains of a nuclear holocaust get a little much from time to time.
Powered by a 500hp engine, the Beetle could, on a hard, flatsurface, reach a top speed of…eight miles per hour. Any faster – notthat it could go much faster – and the vibrations damaged some of itsfiner instrumentation and mechanics. That's painfully slow, yes, butspeed had been traded off for power, the robot's bulk meaning it had85,000 pounds of pull in its arms, strong enough to either punch cleanthrough a thick concrete wall or, should the need arise, grab a walland tear it clean off a building or bunker.
Yet despite this raw power, it could also – thanks to its roots as aservicing platform – perform incredibly delicate operations. At apublic demonstration in 1962, for example, the Beetle was able to rollup to a carton of eggs (pictured up top), pick a single egg up and holdit in its pincers without breaking it.
In a final and — given the appearance and scale of the Beetle —unexpected twist, the robot was also capable of reaching great heights.The cabin, which housed the cockpit and arms, was able to be raised onfour hydraulic pistons, and when fully extended the Beetle stood animposing 27 feet off the ground, more than high enough to pick throughthe rubble of a decent-sized apartment building.
All of which sounds amazing, you're probably thinking. It's like amech, only real! Why don't we have these today? Why aren't US militarypersonnel going to war in Metal Gears, instead of tanks, which are sotwentieth century?
Well, for all its promise and science fiction appeal, the Beetle just didn't work very well.
At the same 1962 demonstration it managed to pick up an egg – forPopular Science and Life magazines - it also, over the source of fourdays, \"operated seldom\", the Beetle plagued by hydraulic leaks, brokenarms, dead generators (the cockpit instrumentation had its own engine)and countless short circuits. Internal testing conducted by the AirForce was even more damning, citing constant mechanical failures and animpossibly high standard of maintenance required to keep the Beetle ingood working order.
Perhaps its biggest failing, however, was that it was utterlyunsuitable for active duty. The Beetle had been designed as amaintenance platform, which would operate from the confines andrelative safety of an Air Force base. With the demise of the atomicaircraft program, however, the other potential roles planned for itwould have required a more active deployment, something its size,weight and most crucially unwieldiness (as in, taking several minutesfor a pilot to get in and out) simply could not stand up to.
Future efforts of this type were thus focused on making militaryrobots smaller, both so that they would be lighter – and thus easier tomaintain – and also so that they could be operated remotely, ratherthan having to provide such extreme protection measures for a singlepilot. In 2010, you can see the legacy of the Beetle in remotelyoperated vehicles such as the TALON, recently made famous from themovie Hurt Locker, and the very Metal Gear-looking \"Big Dog\", recently commissioned for the US Marine Corps.
It's unknown what ultimately became of the Beetle. The Air Forcecouldn't tell us. Maybe it rusted away in a field somewhere. Maybe itwas salvaged for parts. Maybe it's tucked away in a forgotten corner ofan Air Force base, gathering dust.
Or maybe war really did change, and someone found a way toput the Beetle to use threatening world peace in some remote, isolatedcorner of the world, where it was blown to pieces by Naked Snake. It'sthe least such an amazing, and sadly forgotten, piece of militaryhardware deserves.
References:
Popular Science Magazine, May 1962
LIFE Magazine, May 1962
Unitd States Air Force Technical Documentary Report Number AFSWC-TDR-62-137 (Unclassified)
Image credits:
LIFE Magazine
Popular Science Magazine |
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