- [Narrator] For almost 70 years, the Soviet Union was a superpower that was virtually unmatched when it came to mechanical mind. They invested in many experimental designs to prove their power to the world. But some vehicles that emerged
from the socialist state were jaw dropping, but
for all the wrong reasons. From fortresses with wings
to screw propelled trucks and even flying saucers, no Soviet design was too much or too mad. So, buckle up and brace yourselves because we're about to take a look at some of the craziest Soviet vehicles that you won't believe are real. The 2B1 Oka. In the Soviet union, the idea of bigger is always better was made pretty clear from the creation of the 2B1 Oka. This very, err, well-endowed, experimental artillery model was designed back in 1957, just as the Cold War was
beginning to heat up. America had recently rolled out their Atomic Annie Mortar, which fired huge
280-millimeter atomic shells, making it a wagon that could shoot relatively small nuclear bombs. In retaliation, the
Soviet military developed two self-propelled
nuclear artillery systems of their own. And, as you probably guessed, one of them was the
utterly insane 2B1 Oka. The barrel of this canon was
a horrifying 65 feet long. For contrast, an entire Sherman tank is just 20 feet long. At this staggering size, the barrel could fire
420-millimeter rounds that weighed a colossal
1,650 pounds a piece and could land an atomic
explosion 28 miles away. Unfortunately for the Oka, its huge gun was also a huge problem. With rounds that weighed
more than a grand piano, the canon's laborious loading process meant the Oka could only
fire once every five minutes. On top of that, the recoil
of the colossal canon was too much for the rest
of the vehicle to endure. The steely chassis was
damaged with every shot and would even rip the
gearbox from its mountings. Thankfully, this insane design was abandoned in the 1960s when big guns made way for big missiles. But even though it was
never used in combat, I bet just rolling it out was enough to give Soviet enemies a real good scare. The 1K17 Szhatie. If sci-fi movies are anything to go by, the battlefields of the future will have lasers flying
in every direction. And while modern militaries are
developing laser technology, there's one Soviet vehicle
that's already built for a futuristic laser fight. This is the 1K17 Szhatie, also known as the Soviet laser tank. It was developed back in the 1970s, although it wasn't built to burn holes through the enemy. The array of 13 lasers on
top of the tank chassis focused a powerful light source through synthetically-grown rubies with each one weighing
a staggering 66 pounds. When the array was fired in pulses, the Szhatie could destroy
the optical sensors on enemy vehicles and missiles, and even cause immediate blindness when fired at enemy troops. Now, that's what I call
ultimate laser tag. But this other worldly weapon never entered service for a
number of very good reasons. Firstly, rubies that are heavier
than a large microwave oven are not cheap to produce. And secondly, it would have violated the Geneva conventions protocol
on blinding laser weapons if it was ever used in
an anti-infantry role. Like war wasn't bad enough, using this would have landed them with a lot of powerful enemies. So it's a good thing that
when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, any plans of mass laser tank
production fell with it. Okay, I want to do a quick poll. If you had the choice between
a 65-foot gun of the Oka or the lasers of the Geneva
convention breaking Szhatie, which would you rather fire? For the enormous Oka,
hit that Like button, and for the blinding Szhatie, set your sight on that Subscribe button. Can't choose? Then hit both! Alright, now where were we? The Zveno project. In the 1930s, a little over a decade since the end of the first world war, Soviet Russia realized that the skies would be the battlegrounds of the future. So it began developing
experimental aircraft just in case a second world war started. Spoiler alert, it did. Now, Russia was ready to take to the air, but one of the vehicles they created looked more like a flying circus than a military machine. The Zveno project, also called the chain link project, involved a bomber that had
been specially modified not to carry bombs but
smaller fighter planes. It was an out-of-the-box plan to save fuel on the front lines as bombers were much more fuel efficient than the smaller fighters. After takeoff, the fighters
docked with the carrier while in flight by using
some special fastenings. And once they were all strapped down, the bomber flew them off into the fight and refueled them on the way. Each of these amazing motherships could carry up to five fighters and each fighter was loaded up with around 1000 pounds of bombs. So if you saw one of these
things on the horizon, you knew you were in for
a whole swarm of trouble. Even though these creative craft were used successfully at the
beginning of World War II, the Zveno project wasn't
developed any further. During the war time technology boom, these aircraft quickly became obsolete and were replaced by
state-of-the-art fighter jets. Well, the design didn't
fly with the military, but I wonder if the project found a home in the Soviet circus scene. The Antonov A-40. The Soviets may have given up on that fortified flying circus, but they were far from done with crazy aircraft designs. Don't believe me? Then just feast your eyes on the unbelievable Antonov A-40. Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No. It's a tank with wings. This astonishing Soviet prototype was built almost 80 years ago to determine if gliding a tank straight onto a battlefield was possible. At the time, the Soviets were testing whether bombers could
be used to drop tanks into position mid-battle. Some of these tests even plunged the tanks into bodies of water to see what damage they
sustained on impact. But in 1942, Soviet glider designer Oleg Antonov took the
idea one step further. He created an attachable cradle made up of biplane wings and a twin tail that could be attached onto the chassis of a light tank. The A-40 would then be
towed behind a bomber and released gliding into enemy territory where it could shed its wings and fight as a standard tank. However, during the A-40's maiden flight, the bomber towing it was
forced to drop it early because of the incredible amount
of drag the tank generated. It was more like an
anchor than an aircraft. Even though the tank and its driver managed to survive the fall, the project didn't. It was ironically dropped in favor of a more
conventional weapons system, much to the relief of that
poor tank driver, I'm sure. The Mil Mi-10. Now, when the Soviet military wanted some seriously heavy lifting done, they called in a Mil Mi-10 helicopter. Despite looking like the love child of a helicopter and a spider, the long legs on this chopper weren't for climbing up buildings or weaving webs between the clouds. It was designed in the late 1950s to carry big bulky loads that the Union's largest
helicopters at the time, the Mil Mi-6, couldn't fit in its hold. While the Mi-6 could carry
a little over 13 tons, the Mi-10's lighter design
and external platform allowed it to load up to 15 tons of oddly shaped equipment. With those long, gangly legs making it almost 30 feet high, the chopper could taxi over to loads, attach them to its fuselage and fly off with everything in tow. This ranged from trucks and buses to fully built buildings. It was such a strange and
shocking sight to behold that the Mi-10 was
featured in demonstrations and air shows all over the world to show off its unique feature. Even though mass production of this wacky flying crane
design didn't take off, 55 Mi-10s were produced during the 1960s and some were still in use up to 2013. I guess, a good set of legs never really goes out of style. The K-84 Ekaterinburg. From the 1950s through to 1997, the Soviet Union and later Russia built a total of 245
nuclear powered submarines. This was more than all
other nations combined. But the Soviet submarine obsession almost caused one of the worst
nuclear disasters in history. In 2011, the nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine K-84, also known as Ekaterinberg, made a quick stop in a dry dock. Built in 1982, the
almost 550 foot long sub was powered by two nuclear reactors and could carry up to 16 nuclear missiles. But during some routine welding work, a fatal fire broke out along the wooden scaffolding
surrounding its bow. This quickly spread to
the submarine itself. And for a whole heart-stopping day, firefighters struggled
to control the blaze. The sub had been carrying
just four nuclear missiles at the time, but if it had exploded, it would have caused a nuclear accident comparable to the infamous
Chernobyl meltdown. As catastrophic as it could have been, the K-84 was gradually repaired, exposing the sheer size
of the sub's sonar array. It may be a nuclear death-trap, but does anyone else think
it looks like that cool ship from the Disney film "Atlantis?" Though it looks like something
out of a sci-fi adventure, that big ball is actually the sonar array's acoustic chamber. This is used to analyze sound waves from sonar equipment and
translate it into visual data so that the sub can navigate under water. As cool as it looks, this chamber was filled with
a highly flammable liquid that almost ignited during the incident. I don't know what's crazier. The fact that these subs
are practically bombs made out of bombs or that the Soviets once had 245 of them. The M-15 Belphegor. Often referred to as the
ugliest plane in the world, the M-15 Belphegor certainly isn't the prettiest aircraft to look at. Hailing from the Soviet
satellite state of Poland, this government designed crop duster was meant to replace the
old reliable An-2 biplane, but the M-15 was not what
anyone in their right mind would call an improvement. Like the An-2, the Belphegor
was also a biplane, but its design traded a
propeller based turboprop engine for a turbofan based jet engine. These powerful engines
are intended for aircraft that need to reach high speeds. So using one in an agricultural aircraft was a weird world first. Despite this, it was able
to carry up to three tons of pesticides in the huge
pylons separating its wings. So the Soviet block had huge expectations for the plane, but in reality, the design was a disaster. For a start, it had a maximum range of just 215 nautical miles, half that of the An-2. The jet engine was also
more difficult to fix than a turboprop, and it cost much more to build and operate. And to top it off, the
funky fuselage design limited the Belphegor's
usefulness to crop dusting. In other words, this plane was a strange high-maintenance and
expensive one-trick pony. While the Union had plans
to make thousands of them, production of this Polish
plane was pigeonholed in 1981. Thank God. The Lun-class Ekranoplan. One of the most unusual vehicles from the time of the Cold War or any era for that matter has to be the Lun-class Ekranoplan. At a gargantuan 242 feet long with a wingspan of 144 feet, this bizarre beast could only just fit inside the lines of a standard
American football field. You may think with all
those wings and jet engines that it's some sort of Soviet aircraft, but this amazing machine is actually a boat-plane hybrid. Instead of taking to the skies
or chugging across the seas, the Ekranoplan exploited something called the wing-in-ground effect. As it flies closer to the ground, air pressure builds between
its specially shaped wings and the surface below. This creates a cushion
of air beneath the plane, allowing the entire vehicle to float just inches over the
surface of a lake or ocean. And by mounting eight turbo
jet engines to the front, this behemoth could travel
at a terrifying top speed of 340 miles per hour. Not only that, but its sheer size meant it could carry upwards of 110 tons. So it had the capacity of a ship with all the speed of an aircraft. On top of that, can you see
those six twin cylinders lining its top? Those aren't party poppers, they're missile launchers. With all that speed and firepower, these monsters were designed to take out any incoming
U.S. aircraft carriers intruding in Union waters. One prototype entered
military service in 1987, but when the Soviet regime
crumbled four years later, this low flying hybrid
was left to gather dust. Although, if Russia ever needed to fight against a big old sea monster, I think I know which machine
they'd bring out of retirement. Project Ekip. As much as I hate to admit it, the tin hat loving conspiracy
theorists are right. UFOs do exist. But they don't come from outer space. They come from Soviet Russia. Say hello to the Ekip, the Soviet aircraft that looks like it was made on Mars. Conceptualized back in 1978, this Russian flying saucer didn't resemble any
other plane of its time or our time, come to think of it. Its striking, domed design was based on aircraft that didn't have any distinguishable fuselage, like certain stealth bombers and reconnaissance aircraft. The elliptical shape
acted like one big wing. And with its turbo jet engine, this strange saucer could
rely on air cushion technology to take off and to land, just like the Ekranoplan. This meant it could
take off from the ground as well as from the water. It was a truly alien concept. But an all-terrain aircraft was obviously appealing to
the Soviet Union's military no matter what it looked like. As the prototypes were being developed, engineers estimated that this
highly aerodynamic design would only use 14 grams of fuel per passenger kilometer. For contrast, regular planes at the time used 45 grams of fuel
per passenger kilometer and the commercial implications
this had were huge. So larger models, like the L3, were designed to carry
up to 400 passengers and others would even be
able to carry passengers alongside their cars. But its fate, like so many
other crazy Soviet vehicles, was bound to the demise of the Union. The Ekip program ground to a halt and sadly never took off. But if it had, could you imagine what our airports would look like today? I'd take a trip on a UFO
over an economy seat any day. The Bartini Beriev VVA-14. A lot of these experimental
Soviet vehicles look like they've been plucked
straight out of sci-fi films, but the Bartini Beriev VVA-14 might just have inspired one. It closely resembles Star
Wars' famous Millennium Falcon, but it was created in 1972, almost five years before Star Wars hit the silver screen. Looks like George Lucas has some serious explaining to do. The VVA stands for
vertikalno-vzletayushchaya amfibiya or vertical takeoff amphibious aircraft if you're not fluent in Russian, like me. Like its title suggests, it could take off from the water and fly at altitudes of up to 33,000 feet, but it could also fly just a few feet over the ocean waves using that previously mentioned
wing-in-ground effect. It achieved this thanks to two large pods you can see connected to the fuselage. The two engines at the front create a cushion of air by directing the exhaust
into narrow channels between the fuselage and the pods, allowing the plane to
skirt over the waves. It needed this sea-skirting ability to destroy the USA's
Polaris submarine missiles, which kept the Soviet Union awake at night during the Cold War. Initially, the VVA-14 was designed with 12 lift engines for vertical takeoff and landing abilities, but these were never installed. And after its designer
passed away in 1974, this project hit a wall. The two prototypes that were
built were retired in 1987, although their legacy clearly lives on in the Star Wars franchise. The ZVM-2901. All-terrain vehicles are designed to conquer everything off-road. With huge wheels or caterpillar tracks, they can make quick work
of any type of terrain and look incredibly cool doing so. But back in the 1970s, in an effort to think outside the box, Soviet Russia's engineers brought the strangely screw propelled
ZVM-2901 to the table. They'd fused the cab from a UAZ-452 van with two huge hollow screw drives, the blades of which dug into the terrain and propelled the vehicle over it. The result was a vehicle that could plow through thick swamps, miles of mud, and even float over the water. Even though it was
practically unstoppable, using screws cost the vehicle its speed. With a 152-horsepower engine, it could make it to
just 15 miles per hour. And cruising through the water brought that down to
just six miles per hour. It had been based on similar
screw propelled designs from history, like Chrysler's
Marsh Screw Amphibian, which was abandoned because of those laughably low top speeds. That didn't deter Soviet Russia from taking a stab at it, though. While the experimental design was incredibly eye-catching, vehicle speeds and applications of tracked and tired vehicles were vastly superior. And so, this screwy designed
was left in the past. The Kalinin K7. Today, planes with wings
spanning hundreds of feet are pretty common. All you have to do is look up and you'll see a commercial
liner like a Boeing 747 with wings stretching out around 200 feet. But back in the 1930s, just 30 years after the Wright brothers proved that man could fly, Soviet Russia wheeled
out the mega monstrosity. That was the Kalinin K7. It had a wingspan of more than 170 feet and a wing area of
almost 5,000 square feet, which is bigger than
that of a B-52 bomber. It was initially going to be powered by seven propeller engines with six along its wings
and one planted at its rear. But as it was being built, it exceeded its maximum takeoff weight, and two more engines had to be added along the wing. Once constructed, the almost
27-ton flying fortress was the largest plane in the world. But depending on its configuration, it could be used for different missions such as troop transport or
as a gunship or a bomber. So it would have had the capacity to carry up to 120 people or around 21 tons of bombs. Unfortunately though it
never made it into battle. The principles of flight
the K7 grappled with were just too advanced for
the technology of the time and the only prototype
disastrously crashed and burned during testing. While the Soviets get points for testing out such a bold idea, this flying fortress was definitely a flying failure. The Tsar tank. Now, this next machine
may not have been Soviet, but you can definitely
tell it was made by Russia. In the middle of World War I, Russian engineers decided to build a tank the height of a
three-storey house with guns that could obliterate an entire forest. The large front wheels
were 30 feet in diameter and its main body stretched
back almost 60 feet to connect to a single rear wheel. Two turrets full of
cannons and machine guns were bolted on top and
underneath the raised carriage. And to add the cherry on top, additional machine guns
lined the armored pods on each side of the wheels to protect the tank from infantry. This was clearly the king of all tanks. And so they aptly named it the Tsar tank. But what mad idea inspired
this colossal design? At the time, the Russians
were looking for a way to break through the
Eastern front trench system. Instead of tanks with traditional tracks, they decided to experiment with massive, spoked wheels. However, this 60-ton steel behemoth wasn't designed to be on the battlefield. Thanks to some bad engineering, that small rear wheel bore too much of the tank's enormous weight and was prone to getting stuck in soft ground and ditches. Then, during its testing phase, it got embarrassingly stuck in a field and couldn't be dug out. The Tsar tank remained rusting
there throughout the war until it was finally scrapped in 1923. Now that was one wheely big waste. The evolution of MAZ trucks. Way back in 1954, the Minsk Auto Zavod, abbreviated to MAZ, was founded in Soviet-ruled Minsk. This factory produced
some of the most reliable and diverse tractors of the Soviet market, often turning the vehicles
into all-terrain trucks that could carry massive loads, like the MAZ-529. This uniaxial engine
could tow up to 34 tons of just about anything, from cement mixers to ice rinks. This got the attention
of the Soviet military, who commissioned the factories
first biaxial vehicle, the MAZ 535. And this eight by eight beast of a tractor didn't spread manure. It spread munitions. At almost 30 feet long and 10 feet wide, it could carry up to eight tons, meaning it could tow anything from tanks to massive missiles. But this wasn't MAZ's final form. As the Soviet Union began
making bigger ballistic missiles in the 1960s, the MAZ-543
was created to carry them. As you can see, the front
cabin was split into two, though it was only driven
from the left compartment. The divot this left in
the middle of the truck allowed it to horizontally carry sensitive loads that
weighed up to 15 tons. Although they didn't stop there. As the size of the rockets increased, so did the MAZ, leading to the creation of the astonishing 12 by 12 MAZ-547. This six axle truck could carry a staggering 62 ton payload and with its 625 horsepower engine, it could move at a top
speed of 24 miles per hour. But then somehow the
rockets got even bigger. And so did the MAZ. The next successor, the MAZ-7904, was a whopping 100 feet long, 20 feet wide, and could carry missiles weighing a terrifying 200 tons. Whoa, those cabins are so far apart that this truck is starting to resemble that sloth from Ice Age. But did they stop there? Of course not. Meet the jaw dropping 24 by 24 wheel, 12 axle MAZ-7907. This monstrous machine was designed to carry the Tselina-2 missiles, which were going to weigh over 100 tons and measure in at a
staggering 74 feet long. That's almost the same size as a six-storey building. Unfortunately, the Soviet Union collapsed before the project could launch and only a few prototype 7907s were made. This was the end of the road for the mad military MAZ designs. But what a wild and wheely ride it was! Which of these Soviet vehicles did you think was the most insane? Or have you seen any of them in museums with your own eyes? Let me know down in the comments below. And thanks for watching!
