{"id":168,"date":"2010-11-30T17:52:43","date_gmt":"2010-11-30T22:52:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/flymall.org\/blog\/?p=168"},"modified":"2010-11-30T17:52:43","modified_gmt":"2010-11-30T22:52:43","slug":"the-kettenkrad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flymall.org\/blog\/2010\/11\/the-kettenkrad\/","title":{"rendered":"The Kettenkrad"},"content":{"rendered":"

While browsing the classifieds on Barnstormers.com <\/a>I came across an ad for a Kettenkrad for sale.\u00a0 Intrigued I did some research on the net.\u00a0 And if this winter is anything like last year I think I\u2019ll consider one of these as my next vehicle.<\/p>\n

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Referred to as the “tracked motorcycle” concept, the Kettenkrad was conceived and patented by a German inventor, Heinrich Ernst Kniepkamp, in June of 1939.<\/p>\n

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The SdKfz 2, better known as the Kleines Kettenkraftrad HK 101 or Kettenkrad for short (Ketten = tracks, krad = military abbreviation of the German word Kraftrad, the administrative German term for motorcycle), started its life as a light tractor for airborne troops.\u00a0 The vehicle was designed to be delivered by Junkers Ju 52 aircraft, though not by parachute. The vehicle had the advantage of being the only gun tractor small enough to fit inside the hold of the Ju 52.<\/p>\n

Steering the Kettenkrad was accomplished by turning the handlebars:\u00a0 if little movement was used then the wheel would steer the vehicle, however if they were turned further they would engage the track brakes to help make turns sharper.<\/p>\n

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The SdKfz 2 was designed and built by the NSU Motorenwerke AG at Neckarsulm, Germany. \u00a0It was first used in the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. Later in the war Stoewer from Stettin also produced Kettenkrads under license, accounting for about 10% of the total production.<\/p>\n

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Most Kettenkrads saw service on the Eastern Front, where they were used to lay communication cables, pull heavy loads and carry soldiers through the deep Russian mud. \u00a0Late in the war, Kettenkrads were used as runway tugs for aircraft, including jets such as the Me 262<\/a>. In order to conserve aviation fuel, the aircraft would be towed rather than run the engines while taxiing.<\/p>\n

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The vehicle was also used in the North African theater and in Western Europe.<\/p>\n

The Kettenkrad came with a special trailer that could be attached to it to improve its cargo capacity.\u00a0 Other trailers used by the Kettenkrads could be used for other lightweight vehicles such as the Kubelwagon and the Schwimmwagon (pictured below – the two\u00a0vehicles\u00a0on the right).<\/p>\n

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Being a tracked vehicle the Kettenkrad could climb up to 24\u00b0 in sand and even more in hard ground, as long as the driver had courage for it.<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

Only two significant sub-variations of the Kettenkrad were constructed, and production of the vehicle was stopped in 1944, at which time 8,345 had been constructed.\u00a0 \u00a0After the war the production went on until 1948 or 1949.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While browsing the classifieds on Barnstormers.com I came across an ad for a Kettenkrad for sale.\u00a0 Intrigued I did some research on the net.\u00a0 And if this winter is anything like last year I think I\u2019ll consider one of these as my next vehicle. Referred to as the “tracked motorcycle” concept, the Kettenkrad was conceived […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p95FsX-2I","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":807,"url":"https:\/\/flymall.org\/blog\/2012\/12\/kettenkrad-article-from-the-kneeslider\/","url_meta":{"origin":168,"position":0},"title":"Kettenkrad article from The Kneeslider","date":"December 17, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is a short article on the Kettenkrad from The Kneeslider \u00a0 Tags: motorcycle, kettenkrad","rel":"","context":"In "Newsletters"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":254,"url":"https:\/\/flymall.org\/blog\/2011\/02\/flymall-news-feb-1-2011\/","url_meta":{"origin":168,"position":1},"title":"Flymall News Feb 1 2011","date":"February 1, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The Flymall team has been busy over the last several months.\u00a0 We have established numerous partnerships to offer our customers a variety of services and online shopping carts.\u00a0 In our shopping mall you can shop at Best Buy, Newegg, and more.\u00a0 For our automotive customers you can find our automotive\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Newsletters"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6990,"url":"https:\/\/flymall.org\/blog\/2023\/05\/flymall-org-may-2023-wheels-wings-newsletter\/","url_meta":{"origin":168,"position":2},"title":"Flymall.org May 2023 Wheels & Wings Newsletter","date":"May 17, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Welcome to the Kraemer Aviation\/Flymall.org Wheels & Wings Newsletter. This month our theme is tracked vehicles. So what was the world's first tank or tracked vehicle? The answer is Little Willie. Little Willie was the world's first operational tank in 1915. It was developed to tackle the problems of trench\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Newsletters"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/flymall.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/little-willie.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6582,"url":"https:\/\/flymall.org\/blog\/2023\/02\/flymall-january-2023-wheels-wings-newsletter\/","url_meta":{"origin":168,"position":3},"title":"Flymall January 2023 Wheels & Wings Newsletter","date":"February 1, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Welcome to the Kraemer Aviation\/Flymall.org Wheels & Wings Newsletter. This month is all about \"Amphibious\" vehicles. You can view past newsletters here.\ufeff Interested in living at an airport?\u00a0\u00a0Visit our Aviation Real Estate page here. You can view price data for airport property in our Market Watch section of the Flymall.\u00a0Here\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Newsletters"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/flymall.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/52661980059_615085042c_c-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flymall.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flymall.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flymall.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flymall.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flymall.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/flymall.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":176,"href":"https:\/\/flymall.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168\/revisions\/176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flymall.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flymall.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flymall.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}