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Jan 1, 1487
Leonardo da Vinci's sketch
Leonardo Da Vinci sketched an idea in his notebook during the year 1487, unknown month and day. The idea was of an armoured vehicle. -
Aubriot-Gabet "Fortress"
The Aubriot-Gabet "Fortress" was an early tank prototype. It was powered by electricity, and was armed with a 37mm Navy cannon. They scrapped the idea since they thought it was too impractical. -
Little Willie (UK)
The Little Willie was a prototype of the Mark I British Tank. It is manufactured by Fosters of Lincoln. Unlike the Aubriot-Gabet, the Little Willie had tracks. Construction first began on July 22, 1915. Only one single Little Willie tank was built. It weighs 16.5 tonnes. It is 8.08 m in length, 2.86 m in width, and 2.51 m in height. It can fit six crew members. The main gun is a Vickers 2-pounder gun, and the second armament are 6 Madsen machine guns. The speed of this tank is 2 miles per hour. -
Renault FT-17 (France)
The Renault FT-17 was the first tank that had a fully rotating turret. This new feature allowed the tank crew to take down their enemies much quicker. It measures 16.4 ft in length, 4.8 ft in width, 7 ft in height, and it weighed 7.2 tons. It held a total of 2 crew members. The main armament was either a Puteaux SA 1918 37mm gun or 8mm Hotchkiss machine gun. The speed of this tank is 4.3 mph, which is a bit faster than the Little Willie. It saw service in 10 wars. It is a Light tank. -
Panzerkampfwagen I (Germany)
The Panzerkampfwagen I, also known as Panzer I, was a light tank built by Henschel, MAN, Krupp, Daimler for Germany. What was different in this tank rather than the other tanks was that it featured a new quarter-elliptical leaf spring for suspension, and it could go up to 31 mph on-road, and 23 mph off-road. The speed is enormously different in the Panzer I than the tanks built by other countries. The Panzer I is 13.2 ft in length, 6.8 ft in width, 5.6 ft in height, and it weighs 5.4 tonnes. -
Panther (Germany)
The Panther tank was a very powerful tank during World War II. It is a Medium class tank. It outmatched the mighty American M4 Sherman. The Panther had better frontal armour, and gun penetration. -
Main battle tanks
Main battle tanks were orignally built to replace the light, medium, heavy and super-heavy classifications. During the introduction of the Cold War, composite armour was developed, this led to Main battle tanks being made. Since there was a threat of nuclear war, the armour for tanks were buffed up. The armour could even counter radiation exposure! The firepower also became more powerful in MBTs. -
T-64 (Soviet Union)
The T-64 was the first ever Main battle tank. It weighed 38 tonnes, 30 ft in length, 11 ft in width, and 7 ft in height. It can hold a total of 3 crew members. It is armed with a D-81T 125 mm smoothbore gun as the main armament, and 7.62 mm PKMT coax machine gun or 12.7 mm NSVT antiaircraft machine gun as the second armament. It is still in use by Russia to this day. -
Tanks today
As you can see, tanks today are vastly different from tanks in the past. They now have better armour, firepower, speed, design, and navigation. It is easy to tell that they are obviously going to create more tanks in the future, and soon all the tanks we use today will be scrapped.
