No resources were spared to create a nuclear shield in the USSR. So in the 80’s appeared a huge 24-wheel MAZ designed to transport and launch intercontinental missiles capable of hitting the United States.
Characteristics MAZ-7907
- Length: 28 187
- Width: 4100
- Height: 4410
- Ground clearance: 465 mm
- Wheelbase: 4105 mm
- Rear track: 3330 mm
- Front track: 3330 mm
- Weight: 65800 kg
- Dynamic Max. speed: 25 km/h
The MAZ-7907 chassis was successfully tested, but was not adopted for service. Two prototypes of the MAZ-7907 chassis are stored at the MAZ proving ground. The length of the vehicle is 28.1 meters, width – 4.1 meters, height – 4.4 meters.
MAZ-7907 is a prototype chassis of the Minsk Automobile Plant for the launcher of the mobile ground missile system “Tselina-2”. The only vehicle in the world with 24 driving wheels, 16 of which are steerable, powered by a generator driven by a tank gas turbine. The chief designer of the chassis is automobile designer Boris Lvovich Shaposhnik.
Works on lightweight (relative to MAZ-7904) articulated twelve-axle chassis MAZ-7907 with electric drive and eight-axle MAZ-7906 with mechanical drive were started in Minsk 1983.
The first prototype was assembled at MAZ in 1985 and was considered as an alternative chassis for the program “Tselina-2”. The chassis was to be capable of transporting a rocket with a launch mass of 104.5 tons, length of 22.6 m and diameter of 2.4 m.
Tests of the MAZ-7907 chassis began in 1986. The purpose of the tests was to select a type of chassis for the Tselina-2 airborne missile defense system. The tests required serious modernization of the infrastructure of the military unit: giant hangars were built for storage and maintenance of the chassis, special road sections with bridges and interchanges to study the impact of the wheels on the roadbed. The tests were completed in September 1987, with the MAZ-7907 having traveled 2054 km at a maximum achieved speed of 25 km/h.
The main technical features of MAZ-7907 include the installation of a 1250 hp gas turbine engine (specially designed and manufactured version of the tank gas turbine engine GTD-1000TF – GTD-1000TFM; according to other data – GTD-1250A) and a rather complex, but effective electric transmission with 24 motor-wheels with a diameter of 1.66 meters. The engine drove the alternator, which produced electricity and powered the entire electric transmission, which consisted of 24 synchronous electric motors TE660-24 AC with frequency regulation, installed inside the frame, one for each of the wheels. Due to the incompleteness of work of allied companies on the creation of a synchronous electric motor with full oil cooling, air-oil cooled traction motors were used in the chassis.
The chassis used a ridge-type frame with a horizontal power joint connecting two six-axle all-wheel drive links. This solution in combination with independent hydro-pneumatic lever suspension with pneumatic connection of each two wheels on the side of the chassis, the system of frame position regulation and a long wheel travel allowed the chassis to move along the complex profile of dirt roads without hanging up the support points. At the same time, the frame remained rigid in the horizontal plane when turning. High maneuverability of the chassis is provided by an automatic system of differential wheel steering – four front and four rear axles are steerable, while the rear four axles turn in the opposite direction when turning. These measures made it possible to achieve a turning radius of 27 meters with a chassis length of 28 meters.
