Fighting Vehicles - A History in Patents

If you remember my review of Speculative Warplane Designs - A History in Patents, I was fascinated by the range of designs from the early days of flight to very recent times. In that title were designs that, in most cases, never got off the drawing board.

In this new release, Dataview Publishing has obtained patent information on an interesting number of combat vehicles, some of which have made it into production. Starting with the design above created at the end of the nineteenth century, the Patent Office has been collecting an interesting array of design proposals/concepts.

Starting with the rifle-equipped bicycle, this title runs through an interesting array of concepts from the first and second World Wars and well into present day. Some of the concepts look like the works of Jules Verne, others are quite practical but perhaps not better than what was entering service at the time.

One of the designs in particular was fascinating in that it involved manned spheres that were attached to a tank chassis and allowed for elevation through trees for a protected observation point as well as for ad-hoc sentry stations. The details in this design look like something out of science fiction but the designer provided a wealth of images and concepts. Fascinating stuff!

As I said, some of the vehicles and concepts do look familiar, such as the Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) pictured here. So wander through these pages and look at what some visionaries considered to get their weapons on target. Many designs were ahead of their time as the technology wasn't yet available to implement their visions. Others were simply far-fetched.

This title is available in electronically in Adobe Acrobat(tm) format. You can purchase the CD for $9.99 or download it directly from the publisher for only $1.99.

This title is available directly from the publisher at Dataview Publications (www.dataviewbooks.com).

My sincere thanks to Dataview Publications for this review sample!