# Admiral Byrd's Snow Cruiser-What Happened to It?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/admiral-byrds-snow-cruiser-what-happened-to-it/503917>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [July 22, 2009, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/admiral-byrds-snow-cruiser-what-happened-to-it/503917 "2009-07-22T22:17:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2009, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/admiral-byrds-snow-cruiser-what-happened-to-it/503917/1 "2009-07-22T22:17:47Z")

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In the early 1930’s Adm, Richard Byrd conceived a new motor vehicle for antarctic exploration-it was called the “Snowcruiser”. It was a huge bus-like vehicle, which had enormous tires and was big enough to carry a bunch of men and their gear. Being heated, it was a cool way to traverse the ice cap of Antrctica-only it didn’t work out too well. What happened to it? Was it left to rust in Antarctica?

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**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2009, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/admiral-byrds-snow-cruiser-what-happened-to-it/503917/2 "2009-07-22T22:28:33Z")

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> **[Antarctic Snow Cruiser](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_cruiser)**
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> The Antarctic Snow Cruiser was a vehicle designed under the direction of Thomas Poulter, intended to facilitate transport in Antarctica during the United States Antarctic Service Expedition (1939–41). The Snow Cruiser was also known as "The Penguin," "Penguin 1" or "Turtle" in some published material.
> Poulter had been second in command of Byrd's Second Antarctic Expedition, launched in 1934. From his time in the Antarctic, Poulter had devised several innovative features. The massive Snow Cruis...

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> The Antarctic Snow Cruiser was a vehicle designed from 1937 to 1939 under the direction of Thomas Poulter, intended to facilitate transport in the Antarctic. While having several innovative features, it generally failed to operate as hoped under the difficult conditions, and was eventually abandoned in Antarctica. Rediscovered under a deep layer of snow in 1958, it later disappeared again due to shifting ice conditions.