Giant Andes-scaling truck will install Alma array

This custom-built, 28-wheel truck was created by the German firm of Scheuerle Fahrzeugfabrik to scale the Andes bearing 115-tonne antennas that will form the Alma array in the high-altitude Atacama desert.

Look, it's basically a metastasized Hot Wheels toy. I haven't had my pulse so quickened by a truck since I was seven.


The vehicles will have to haul their heavy cargo safely from the 2,900m-high Alma base camp, where the antennas are assembled, to the array site, which lies at 5,000m – about half the cruising altitude of a 747.

The vehicles must therefore be extremely powerful, as the journey will make extraordinary demands on the two 500kW diesel engines.

Because of the low oxygen content of the air at 5,000m, vehicle operators will need to wear portable oxygen canisters. The backrests of the driver seats are shaped to allow the driver to wear his oxygen tank while driving.

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(via Gizmodo)