Boirault machine (No. 1) | |
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![]() ![]() Top:The Boirault machine used a huge rotating frame around a motorized center. Bottom: Boirault machine underway. | |
Place of origin | ![]() |
Service history | |
In service | January 1915–November 1915 (experimental) |
Wars | World War I |
Production history | |
Designer | Boirault |
Designed | 1914 |
Produced | January 1915 |
No. built | 1 |
Specifications | |
Mass | 30 tonnes |
Length | 8.00 m |
Width | 3.00 m |
Height | 4.00 m |
Crew | 2 |
Engine | petrol 80hp |
Maximum speed | 3 km/h |
The Boirault machine (French: Appareil Boirault), was an early French experimental landship, designed in 1914 and built in early 1915. It has been considered as "another interesting ancestor of the tank",[1] and described as a "rhomboid-shaped skeleton tank without armour, with single overhead track".[2] Ultimately, the machine was deemed impractical and was nicknamed Diplodocus militaris, [3]after a Sauropod from the Jurassic. It preceded the design and development of the English Little Willie tank by six months.