The 5 Chain road.
Machines, electronics and people.
State of the art - 30 years ago.
Remote controlling the Tiger was a technical challenge because it needed at least 16 control channels of which the majority are not proportional, simply switch and relay controls.
Adding custom mechanical controls based on the original 10WSc radio and driving controls meant that a commercial RC system was not suitable.
A Five Chain road is exactly that, 5 chains wide which equates to about 110 foot or 33 metres wide. The roadway runs down the centre leaving about 90 feet of grass on the sides to feed droving sheep in the days before rail and truck transport.
Hard men - one and all.
On the left, the builder's brother Joe, manning a machine gun on the Murra Wurra front back in 1967.
The Womboota Horsman astride a pony just south of the Murray River circa 1945. Lang Dean, father of nine was a shearer and farmer before taking up bush carpentry. Self taught, he finished his working career a respected builder.
Idle testing the V12 engine. The engine was deliberately designed to start easily, idle well and producer a very low power output for its 150cc capacity.
Power PaK
Ten or so years after WWII, the Germans took up up heavy tank production once again. No doubt most of the senior design engineers and the officers of the new West German army remembered the problems of tank maintenance in the field during their service on the Eastern Front. These memories sparked the development of the 'Power Pack' approach to ease maintenance. The power pack can be disconnected and replaced simply in the field with a fresh pack. The faulty pack can be returned to a rear depot for easier and faster repair. Unlike the Tiger, which was extremely difficult to service, the Wimmera Tiger utilises the power pak approach pioneered on the German Leopard tank of the 1960's.