Between the years of 1937 and 1939 engineers and fabricators toiled to design and build a vehicle that would affectionately come to be known as “The Penguin” and in 1940 the massive beast actually made it to its intended location of work in Antarctica. That’s the good news. The bad news is that everything that happened after they got to Antarctica went counter to a very well laid out plan. Some things they had control over but others they were at the mercy of the elements and the vehicle’s own shortcomings.

You could write a book on this thing but the short version is that the Thomas Poulter designed the vehicle and in 1939 he and a group of people from Illinois Tech went to Washington D.C. and did their best to garner support for the exploration of Antarctica by way of this massive snow cruiser they had been building. Their visit was successful and over the span of 11 weeks in 1939 the machine was built from the ground up.

Featuring 10-foot tall Goodyear tires originally intended for use in the swamps of the south, a pair of Cummins H-6 diesel engines, and overall length of 55ft, height of nearly 20ft, a top speed of 30, and the ability to be completely self sufficient for an entire year, it was plain fact that few people had ever seen anything like this before.

After construction finished in October, the crew needed to get the Penguin to Boston to be shipped south. What did they do? They DROVE THE WHOLE WAY. A minor mechanical setback slowed them for couple of days but the thing made the 1,000 mile trip at its top speed of 30mph. That had to have been a long one!

The video is set to pickup as the crew is has arrived to Antarctica and is set to unload the Penguin. The off loading ramps are so terrible we wouldn’t want to drive a Yugo down them let alone a 75,000b truck! This fear somewhat is validated by the fact that the thing breaks through the ramps, goes up on three wheels an barely makes it out alive. It was at this point that the real flaw in the program exposed itself. The tires.

Because these were non-treaded the Penguin was stuck almost from the first moment it touched down. They put on chains and stuff but it was a mess and progress was non-existent. Eventually they figured out that driving it in reverse was best and that was how they did most of their limited traveling on the icy bottom of the Earth.

Less than a month after arrival, Thomas Poulter headed home and left behind a group of scientists who did perform experiments and studies but with the world become more engulfed in war by the day, funding was stopped and the whole thing was cut very short with the rest of the crew packing up to leave before the dawn of 1941 after funding for the project was shut off.

So what happened to the Penguin? By the time it was over, the thing was pretty much a building with wheels on it and had ceased to be driven around. Apparently some sort of timber structure had been built around the outside of it by the remaining crew. It sat there, got covered in snow and ice and stayed that way for nearly 20 years. In 1958 an expedition to find it was successful and they uncovered the thing with bulldozers. Reports were that the big Penguin was in good shape and could have been cranked up with a little elbow grease. That was the last time anyone saw it. Common theories now are that the thing is at the bottom of the ocean after floating off in the ice it was stuck under or it is so deeply encased that it’ll never be found again.

This is just one of those weird historical footnote deals that we love. The size of this thing, the vision behind it, and ultimately the realization that it was not ever going to be what anyone wanted. How many times has history repeated that equation?! Revel in the best days of the Penguin’s life here. This beast was pretty amazing.

Press play below to see the Penguin cruise cross America and onto the Antarctic ice –