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Andrei · ***Power User*** Offline Joined: Feb 05, 2006 Posts: 80

OTD we celebrate 100 years of Philip Wood Lett. Philip Wood Lett (May 4, 1922 – June 6, 2014) was an American armored fighting vehicle engineer that lead the Chrysler Defense design team in the XM1 tank.
A native of Newton, Alabama, graduated from Alabama Polytechnic Institute (Auburn) in 1944 with a B. S. degree in mechanical engineering. He served in the United States Army in the Corps of Engineers during World War II. After the war he received a master's degree in engineering from the University of Alabama in 1947. Lett completed his education in 1951 when he earned a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the University of Michigan. Dr. Lett is internationally recognized as the "father of the M-1 Tank." Lett began his civilian career as an engineer in 1950 when he went to work for the Chrysler Corporation.
His thirty-two years with the Michigan-based company were marked by major accomplishments for both the Auburn graduate and Chrysler. He quickly climbed up the corporate ladder at Chrysler and held the positions of Vice President of Engineering, member of the Board of Directors of Chrysler Defense, Inc., as well as General Manager of the Chrysler Sterling Defense Division.
In 1982, General Dynamics Land Systems Division purchased Chrysler's defense business and Dr. Lett served as Vice President and Assistant to the General Manager at General Dynamics until his retirement in 1987. He then founded PWL, Inc., a defense-consulting firm.
In addition to leading the Chrysler design and development team that built the M-1 Tank for the United States Army, Dr. Lett has also been responsible for research and development of a variety of combat and tactical systems built for the United States military, including the T-51 Heavy Recovery Vehicle, the Heavy Equipment Transporter HET-70, and the Mobile Assault Bridge-Ferry Vehicle.

Andrei · ***Power User*** Offline Joined: Feb 05, 2006 Posts: 80

Thank you for the information!

JiriTintera · Posted: Sat Sep 11, 2021 10:00 am Post subject: Re: XM1 MBT photos. JPG.

Dear Andrei,
the author of the photo of the XM1 model is Mr. John Hamill, who has his own website and is also an active in Facebook.
Link:
johnsmilitaryhistory.c...morm1.html
www.facebook.com/john.a.hamill

Joe_D · Posted: Fri Sep 10, 2021 2:59 pm Post subject: Re: XM1 MBT photos. JPG.

Andrei,

Nice find on the Chrysler XM-1 pictures. I noticed this tank is using the "Light Weight" sprockets, or at least appears to be. I was not aware they even made these that far back. I didn't start seeing these until the late 90's and in my opinion, were junk. Broke to easy back then. Also, if one went bad, you had to replace both on the same sprocket since the teeth and bolt holes to mount on the hub were off set from the original type. Guess even back in the 70's they tried to reduce weight with them and eventually when the M1 grew to over 70 tons they brought them back, lol.

My LT's tank at NTC, notice how it broke. Still were using crap T156 track too, this was in 2000.

B21

Andrei · ***Power User*** Offline Joined: Feb 05, 2006 Posts: 80

Good photos, source unknown -

Andrei · ***Power User*** Offline Joined: Feb 05, 2006 Posts: 80

It looks like M9 Bulldozer kit on M1.
Very strange to see this, maybe someone knows any details?

Doug_Kibbey · Posted: Wed Mar 24, 2021 7:01 pm Post subject: Re: XM1 MBT photos. JPG.

- Andrei

XM1 early FSED turret model, said to be in Patton museum. It has cast gun mask and central part of the turret without combined armor, described in Hunnicutt book.
But it is the only photo of the model I found, maybe someone has more photo of this interesting design?
i.piccy.info/i9/eb3ce5...2864_n.jpg

Andrei, I think the first person I'd ask is Don Moriarty. He doesn't check in here often and he can most easily be reached personally or on several armor forums on Facebook.

Andrei · ***Power User*** Offline Joined: Feb 05, 2006 Posts: 80

XM1 early FSED turret model, said to be in Patton museum. It has cast gun mask and central part of the turret without combined armor, described in Hunnicutt book.
But it is the only photo of the model I found, maybe someone has more photo of this interesting design?
i.piccy.info/i9/eb3ce5...2864_n.jpg

Geoff_walden · ***Power User*** Offline Joined: Jan 26, 2006 Posts: 133

- Andrei

- Geoff_walden

Indeed, inquiring minds want to know. In the late 1990s, this turret (or another of the Chrysler test turrets) was mounted on the hull of XM1 FSED prototype PV4 at the headquarters of the US Army Tank-automotive Command in Warren, Michigan (along with some other interesting early M1 test beds). In the decade following, these vehicles disappeared. I was never able to discover where they went, even though I was a TACOM employee and knew whom to ask – no-one seemed to know. Do these things still exist somewhere, or were they scrapped?

here it is -

Looks like Firepower test rig original turret.

Yeah, that's a photo I took at TACOM in 1999, along with others. But I still don't know where these things went.

Andrei · ***Power User*** Offline Joined: Feb 05, 2006 Posts: 80

- Scott_Taylor

Where is "here"? I'm glad this turret survives.

Cheers,

Scott

At Tank-automotive Command in Warren, but no longer there.

Scott_Taylor · Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2020 5:54 pm Post subject: Re: XM1 MBT photos. JPG.

Where is "here"? I'm glad this turret survives.

Cheers,

Scott

Andrei · ***Power User*** Offline Joined: Feb 05, 2006 Posts: 80

Does enybody know what are these mounts on XM1 for?

Andrei · ***Power User*** Offline Joined: Feb 05, 2006 Posts: 80

- Geoff_walden

Indeed, inquiring minds want to know. In the late 1990s, this turret (or another of the Chrysler test turrets) was mounted on the hull of XM1 FSED prototype PV4 at the headquarters of the US Army Tank-automotive Command in Warren, Michigan (along with some other interesting early M1 test beds). In the decade following, these vehicles disappeared. I was never able to discover where they went, even though I was a TACOM employee and knew whom to ask – no-one seemed to know. Do these things still exist somewhere, or were they scrapped?

here it is -

Looks like Firepower test rig original turret.

Geoff_walden · ***Power User*** Offline Joined: Jan 26, 2006 Posts: 133

Indeed, inquiring minds want to know. In the late 1990s, this turret (or another of the Chrysler test turrets) was mounted on the hull of XM1 FSED prototype PV4 at the headquarters of the US Army Tank-automotive Command in Warren, Michigan (along with some other interesting early M1 test beds). In the decade following, these vehicles disappeared. I was never able to discover where they went, even though I was a TACOM employee and knew whom to ask – no-one seemed to know. Do these things still exist somewhere, or were they scrapped?

Andrei · ***Power User*** Offline Joined: Feb 05, 2006 Posts: 80

Greetings to all, I have a question - where the surviving XM1 Chrysler prototype turret is located now?

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