Batman Begins' Tumbler Inspires Actual Tank

Elizabeth Grunewald

The Pope of Chilitown
Oct 4, 2010
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Batman Begins' Tumbler Inspires Actual Tank

BAE Systems freely admits their newest concept tank was inspired by Batman's rugged ride as seen in Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.

With Christopher Nolan directing traffic, the Batmobile became less a means of conveyance than a serious weapon in Batman's arsenal. BAE Systems [http://www.baesystems.com/], a real-life defense company, has taken a page from Wayne Enterprises in the design of their newest concept tank, and has freely credited the Batmobile as the source of their inspiration.

BAE Systems gave a briefing on the tanks of the future, and Stuart Nathan of The Engineer attended the talk. He overheard another journalist comment that one of the tanks presented, the Raider, looked like the current version of the Batmobile. The BAE presenter, Future Protected Vehicles project leader Hisham Awad, overheard the remark as well, and said, "Glad you said that. That's what we based it on."

According to Nathan, he went on to explain, "we liked the look of that, so we designed something similar... You see, it turns like a motorbike and it has the same wheel configuration." Asked why the emulation by one of the assembled audience, Awad replied, "Well, why not? In all seriousness, we decided that we didn't have a monopoly on inspiration, and if we saw something in a film that we thought might be a good idea, why not take a look at it and see if there's something practical we can develop?"

Nathan, presumably with light cycles in mind, asked Awad if he'd seen Tron: Legacy, and quotes Awad as saying, "No, haven't seen that one yet, but I want to. Have you? Anything good in it?"

A side-by-side view of the Raider and the Batmobile is available here [http://splashpage.mtv.com/2010/12/23/batman-begins-batmobile-inspires-real-life-tank-design/#more-45850].

Source: MTV Splash Page [http://www.theengineer.co.uk/opinion/comment/flights-of-fancy/1006653.article]




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Celtic_Kerr

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May 21, 2010
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Hm... Raider has one Rear Wheel. And it doens't look like that wheel is heavily armored. Glad this is just a preleminary design
 

Albino Boo

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Jun 14, 2010
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Only problem is its made by BAE, it will be 10 years late cost 25 times the original price and wont work.
 

RatRace123

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Dec 1, 2009
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I WANT ONE!
I don't even care if that thing is at all practical, just imagining seeing it being dropped into a combat zone... that's a cool image!
 

Loud Hawk

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Jun 8, 2009
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Celtic_Kerr said:
Hm... Raider has one Rear Wheel. And it doens't look like that wheel is heavily armored. Glad this is just a preleminary design
I am guessing it will be used for reconnaissance, so it's rear wheel would not need to be that heavily armoured.

j-e-f-f-e-r-s said:
It's only got three wheels, as opposed to the Tumbler's four.

However, it also has a massive fuck-off machine gun, and missile launchers. Whilst I wouldn't class myself as a gun-lover, that does make it better than the Tumbler in pretty much every way.
The "Missile launchers" look a lot more like the Vehicular Smoke Grenade Launchers found most modern armoured vehicles.
 

Nouw

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Mar 18, 2009
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That tank looks hardly armoured at all, the guy manning the weapon is going to get killed fairly quickly.

It's good that's not the final version. Anyway, this news is awesome! A fictional vehicle of sheer badassery inspiring a real tank.

Hopefully one day they'll create a real Batmobile and use it in wars.

*Wall goes down!
"HOLY SHIT IT'S BATMAN!"
 

FrostyChick

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Jul 13, 2010
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7moreDead said:
That concept artwork made me think of this
FOR THE MESSIAH!!! KANE LIVES!!!

OT: Wow. I guess Hollywood ain't the only one running low on ideas. x3
Interesting concept though I wished it looked a bit more like the batmobile to be honest. >.>
 

7moreDead_v1legacy

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FrostyChick said:
7moreDead said:
That concept artwork made me think of this
FOR THE MESSIAH!!! KANE LIVES!!!

OT: Wow. I guess Hollywood ain't the only one running low on ideas. x3
Interesting concept though I wished it looked a bit more like the batmobile to be honest. >.>
PEACE THROUGH POWER!

I would love to see someone make a titan...no wait a mammoth...Oo oo ooooo stealth tank!
 

Lord Kloo

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Jun 7, 2010
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Nouw said:
That tank looks hardly armoured at all, the guy manning the weapon is going to get killed fairly quickly.

It's good that's not the final version. Anyway, this news is awesome! A fictional vehicle of sheer badassery inspiring a real tank.

Hopefully one day they'll create a real Batmobile and use it in wars.

*Wall goes down!
"HOLY SHIT IT'S BATMAN!"
I believe (and hope) that the machine gun is an automated contraption otherwise many a man will die from sniper fire..

Also.. I wouldn't want to be facing the Tumbler if it was charging at me, its a good idea they should make their tanks and systems more scary, perhaps have spikes and flames coming off the next one..

Maybe they should watch the deathball movies.. yes thats a good idea..
 

FrostyChick

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Jul 13, 2010
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7moreDead said:
FrostyChick said:
7moreDead said:
That concept artwork made me think of this
FOR THE MESSIAH!!! KANE LIVES!!!

OT: Wow. I guess Hollywood ain't the only one running low on ideas. x3
Interesting concept though I wished it looked a bit more like the batmobile to be honest. >.>
PEACE THROUGH POWER!

I would love to see someone make a titan...no wait a mammoth...Oo oo ooooo stealth tank!
A Mammoth mk II I would squeee to no end if someone made one of those... Or a M.A.R.V. O.O
*nerdgasm*
 

SnipErlite

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Aug 16, 2009
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HAH. The Batmobile lives. Kind of.

I will buy a Batman tumbler one day..... <3 It looks so awesome.
 

Evilsanta

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Apr 12, 2010
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Fucking awesome...I don't care if it wont work or break easily. I want to drive to school in that.
 

Dxz5roxg

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Aug 19, 2009
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I really don't see the resemblance. I can find some similarities between the two but I was thinking it would practically be the same thing. It's still awesome though.