M2 High Speed Tractor

M2 High-Speed Tractor
Type Aircraft tug
Place of origin United States
Service history
In service By 1943
Used by US Army
Wars World War II
Production history
Designed February 1941
Manufacturer Cleveland Tractor Company
No. built 8,510
Variants 1
Specifications
Length 166 in (4.22 m)
Width 70 in (1.78 m)
Height 68 in (1.73 m)
Crew 3
Engine Hercules WXLC3, 6-cylinder, petrol engine
150 hp (112 kW)
Suspension Volute spring
Operational
range
 100 mi (160 km)
Speed 22 mph (35 km/h)

The M2 High-Speed Tractor (or colloquially M2 Cletrac) was an aircraft tug used by the United States Army Air Forces from 1942.[1][2]

Construction

Cletrac in front of a P-47 Thunderbolt of the 406th Fighter Group

The M2 is a fully tracked vehicle designed to tow aircraft on primitive airfields. It was equipped with a 10,000 lb (4,500 kg) winch with 300 ft (91 m) of 3⁄8 in (9.5 mm) cable, an auxiliary generator (3KW, 110 Volts, DC), and an air compressor (3 stage, 16.7 CFPM, 2.000 PSI)

History

The M2 was standardized in February 1941 as Medium Tractor M2.

Surviving artifacts

Surviving examples are at the Estrella Warbird Museum,[3] the Wright Museum,[4] the AAF Museum in Danville, VA, Overloon,[5] the Pima Air & Space Museum,[6] the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum, the Yanks Air Museum, Chino CA, The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Bright's Pioneer Museum, Plainsburg CA, two at the Danville Armour Museum, Danville, VA, and one privately held in Belton, SC, USA.

See also

References

  1. ↑ United States. War Department. TM 9-2800 Standard Military Motor Vehicles. Retrieved 2018-03-18.
  2. ↑ David Doyle (2003). Standard Catalog of U.S. Military Vehicles. Krause Publications. ISBN 0-87349-508-X.
  3. ↑ "EWM Webmaster redirect". www.ewarbirds.org.
  4. ↑ "Wright Museum - M2 Cletrac High Speed Tractor". www.williammaloney.com.
  5. ↑ Overloon, Oorlogsmuseum. "Home - Oorlogsmuseum Overloon". www.oorlogsmuseum.nl.
  6. ↑ User, Super. "Museum Aircraft". www.pimaair.org.
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