Sgt York, M247 

You know regardless of how much of a failure it was it still looks awesome

Thanks for the excellent video. I worked on the Sgt York for Ford Aerospace from 1981 (when the production contact was awarded) to 1985 (when the Army cancelled it), and I really appreciate seeing the insides after 31 years. I worked on the hydraulic system design and development as a mechanical engineer. BigjohnCFL answers below are correct on all accounts. Another concern about crew compartment air was to ensure that the gun gasses were kept out when firing the guns. You can see at 4:32 to double row of door seals (orange color) that seal thre gun compartment from the crew. There was a fan in the turret that worked to purge gasses (out a vent on the lower right turret, visible at 0:30) and also drove air across an air/oil hydraulic heat exchanger to keep the hydraulic system oil below 225F. In the turret crew compartment is a black bag at 2:44, under the gunner hand grip arm. That is a rubber shield over one of the turret drive hydraulic motors, to keep hot hydraulic fluid away from the crew. Ford Aerospace did make lightly over 50 of the M247 vehicles at the Irvine, CA facility before it was cancelled. You probably know that the Army's goal was to rapidly develop this system to replace the Vulcan system, using components from other programs to dramatically cut development time. The tank chassis was from the M48, the radars are basically from the F-16 (just split into track and search radars), the IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit) from a Navy destroyer, the guns were Bofors. In the end, there was a disagreement in the Army between missiles and guns for air defense, and the missile people won the day. Cutting an aircraft in half with a missile at 8 km is much sexier that having proximity ammo disable or kill the crew at 5 km. The M247 had problems, as does any complex weapons system entering the field, but those could have been overcome with a bit more time and money. Thanks again!

I answer as best as I can the questions posted during the video. @ 2:09 That Is the search radar in the stowed position. @ 2:18 The mast for the targeting radar is to the left side of the screen. The antenna is missing. It should have a round dish with a protective cone mounted to the mast. @ 2:39 the ECU (Environmental Control Unit) is visible. The electronics and radar equipment needed to be kept cool so the York had a kick ass air conditioner. The guys I spoke to at Eglin AFB (where a good number of the production run was sent to die) said that the ECU would keep the inside of the turret and hull at 65 degrees on the hottest of days in Florida. Note that this is without the radar up and running and not having to counter the heat of the feed motors and cannons being fired. @ 2:44 yon can see the WSO (weapons systems operator) control yoke, which is missing both of its joysticks. Both the WSO and Commanders yokes had 2 joysticks each, both for control and for something to hang on to. The turret rotation speeds and braking were incredibly fast, thus the 5 point harnesses seen later and the dual joysticks to hang on to. @ 3:30 The red hoses are part of the ECU. The hose above that and the two red caps are places to plug into the NBC (Nuclear,Biological,and Chemical) protection system. There are multiple ports because each crew member had the option to wear a vest that blew air against their skin to warm or cool them and a heated outlet for the NBC Mask to cut down on visor fogging. Masks were only needed when there was a NBC threat. @ 4:40 The swinging cradle held 2 amber monochrome plasma screens that were the weapons/radar systems interface. The screens were surrounded with dedicated buttons that changed function based on the tab that was displayed on the screen right next to the button. @ 7:03 Vent airflow controls liked to ECU. @ 7:20 The Gears are part of the ammunition feed system. The Weapon had the ability to switch from Proximity fused HE shells to AP He shells to engage ground targets. The ammo handling system was very complex and part of the overall failure of the weapons system. @ 8:00 The interconnect panel was intended for use when several vehicles were operating as a fixed emplacement. External generators would feed power for the vehicle, ECU, and electronics suite, without the need to run the auxiliary power unit (small diesel fed turbine above the main power pack) which would drink fuel quickly. The Data connections allowed the vehicles to network and share the target load so that no two vehicles locked onto the same target while leaving another target ignored. @ 8:24 top center of the screen is the rectangular output for the ejected shell casings. @ 8:26 The added "doghouse" for the APU turbine is apparent when compared to the engine decks of any of the other vehicles from the M-48 series. Hope that this information is slightly informative to someone.

I worked on these while I was stationed at Ft Bliss in 86... We were out at McGregor Range and we had about dozen of em... They were better than what was "Officially Written" about them. We had Spec 4's and E5/E6's that actually did all the field testing, but when it came time for "Official Testing" the Butter Bar Lieutenants wanted to show off for the brass so they performed the tests in front of all the decision making brass in town... Total Failure... they couldn't hit anything. Too bad.. It was a cool vehicle and had an awesome namesake.

About 87 fire units were actually delivered when the program shut down in the early 80s. I worked on this program for 3 years. Questions? I have some answers.

Liked, commented, and added to favorites. Thanks for posting!

I worked on this project.

I was MOS 52F: gas turbine engine repairer. I was told Sergeant York had a gas turbine engine. That if it was accepted into the Army inventory. The gas turbine engine would fall into my MOS. I never worked on Sergeant York, so my curiousity is inside that engine bay. Was there any information about the drive train when you took this video?

Just saw this vehicle today ,aafm

With current technology this could work!

This looks like the now closed AAF Museum in Danville, VA. Anyone know where this tank got sent to?

What museum is this?

I could work against land based vehicles like technicals

It was the most expensive test program ever for armor and the biggest failure ever of an armored vehicle for America because they all one of their hands into it in the Do-all vehicle it wouldn’t have surprise me if they didn’t try to make it fly, they did it so stupidly