tanks for fascinating machines and unbelievable Feats of engineering they've literally turned
the tides of Wars like World War II but this Russian tank is on another level and easily
takes the crown as the most unusual tank of all time the big wind great name for an amazing Saga
in military engineering history so what's it all about how does it work and why does
it matter let's figure this out together I'm Ricky and this is two-bit da Vinci
this video is sponsored by a bespoke post it's February 1991 the Western Coalition gains the
upper hand during the first Persian Gulf War driving Saddam Hussein's forces back across the
Sands of Kuwait the embittered Hussein does not go gently into the good night no instead he goes
full-on scorched Earth setting fire to over 700 oil wells turned the Desert Sands into a
literal hellscape facing unparalleled economic and ecological disaster Coalition forces scrambled to
extinguish the Towering Inferno with traditional methods failing the Coalition turns to an unlikely
resource Hungary who swoops in to save the day utilizing an unprecedented feat of innovation
a Frankenstein's monster Mad Max style hybrid machine known as Big wind at first glance Big
Win looks like something the evil empire from Star Wars might have used to obliterate Alderaan but
despite his sci-fi look this machine was very real while it seems designed to bring utter
destruction actually designed to do the in fact it can accurately be described as the world's
most badass fire extinguisher more on that in just a little bit this particular model was designed by
Hungarian Oil Company MB Drilling in 1991. just in time for the gulf Wars dramatic conclusion but its
Origins stretched back a few decades prior and about 50 miles Northwest of Hungary in Soviet
Russia but before we get into that let me tell you about our sponsor this week bespoke post is
a monthly membership club delivering awesome boxes of top shelf goods from under the radar
Brands become a member sign up take a preference quiz and you'll get an email with your tailored
picks each month like this Japanese inspired box we love eating sushi together as a family that's
why this month we decided to get the wabi-sabi or a favorite of mine the siphon a vacuum siphon
coffee maker we saw one of these when we were in Taiwan recently and when I saw it on bespoke post
I had to have it the combination of glass chrome and Beechwood handle is absolutely gorgeous or
the retreat and On The Go hammock built on high quality nylon with polyester ropes and included
carabiners it fills up nice and Compact and is sure to be a great addition to your next
Outdoor Adventure each box of awesome has around 70 dollars of value but you only pay a fraction
of the price to get 20 off your first box of awesome click the link in the description and
enter tbdv20 at checkout or go to bespokeost.com tbdv20 huge thanks for this book post and you for
supporting the show during the Cold War the US and the Soviet Union were less concerned about burning
oil fields and more preoccupied with the threat of biological and chemical weapons and oh yeah
all-out nuclear war anticipating these doomsday scenarios Russia fitted combat vehicles with
special seals and filters to protect Crews from contamination but that still left the outside of
the vehicles vulnerable eagerly searching for ways to swiftly and effectively decontaminate Vehicles
Soviet Engineers basically acted like little kids mashing up all their action figures together ever
the pragmatist the Soviets didn't opt to develop some newfangled Contraption instead they scoured
their own Parts Ben and scrap yards taking bits and pieces from old machines to create
something wholly new and what they came up with was truly remarkable they began by taking the
chassis of azul 131 tank removing the gun turret and replacing with a pair of tamansky r25 Turbo
Jets used on the famous mig-21 fighter jet we actually have a whole video on the mig-21 and
the legendary engineering behind it on our sister Channel project Da Vinci the links in
description the battle tank chassis meant this monstrous machine could roll into just about any
scenario and remain protected while the turbo Jets allowed the machine to deploy powerful blasts of
air and water essentially the Soviets created a post-apocalyptic warhammer-esque pressure washer
I mean honestly it was an era of such high stakes and huge scales and Ambitions it was amazing let
us know in the comments below for the first few decades the Soviet monster machine was relegated
to clear enough runways never really having enough opportunity to live out its initial
purpose which I guess is a good thing considering that that would have meant all-out chemical and
nuclear war but still for so long it seemed like such an incredible idea would ultimately
go to waste and this brings us back to where we started by the late 80s early 90s Hungary zambu
drilling began tinkering with the original Soviet design instead of a zill-131 the Hungarian design
utilized a chassis from a t-34 tank a veteran Workhorse that fought invading Germans in World
War II and this new version was designed with a whole new purpose instead of decontaminating
vehicles its new mission was to extinguish massive scale fires the vehicle required a crew of three
to operate in all flame resistant gear as the tank rolls within 40 feet of a blaze a driver
nestled inside the front cabin navigates toward the Flames at three miles per hour protecting the
delicate engine and platform on top at the rear a second operator controls the engines and water
nozzle and outside the vehicle a director issues commands to the interior crew via wired controls
and the design was completed in just the nick of time and if everything wasn't already bad enough
as the Iraqi forces retreated they set fire to the oil fields the ultimate jerk move see oil
fires aren't like forests or structural fires the pressure from inside the Wellhead blasts the oil
out at immense speeds shooting flames as high as 30 feet into the air and at temperatures of 2 000
degrees Fahrenheit the temperature of molten lava but the challenges don't stop there the Blazing
Tower also impacts the surrounding environment atmospheric temperatures can reach an unbearable
650 degrees Fahrenheit while the sand below can reach a scorching 1300 degrees this makes
approaching the flame nearly impossible while putting the spewing oil at risk of re-igniting
add to this the fact that the flame set Atop A Nearly endless fuel supply and you've got
yourself a huge problem in fact the general tactic When approaching these fires is to first cut off
the fuel source and then attempt to cap the well the typical firefighting method involves pumping
thousands of gallons of water into the well and then utilizing explosives to create a shock wave
pushing the burning fuel and Atmospheric oxygen away from the well essentially like blowing out a
candle but with more Michael Bay style explosions but these techniques aren't always foolproof and
they can take a long time to work and as the oil wells burned time was of the essence at the
Midnight Hour big wind arrived by aerial transport and rolled a mere 25 feet from the oil wells water
sourced from the Arabian Gulf fed into the big wind via enormous diesel-powered water
pumps the interior Crews fired up the jet engines tuned to operate around 70 capacity so as not to
you know explode opening up the throttles induces an ear splintering howl of 130 decibels as loud
as a military jet aircraft takeoff from 50 feet away a trio of high pressure pipes and nozzles
inject water and fire suppressant chemicals into the jet wash which catapults out with 27
000 pounds of thrust at 770 miles per hour delivering up to 220 gallons of water per
second and to put that into perspective big wind could fill an olympic sized pool in just
under an hour a feat that typically takes four days to accomplish Big Win turned out to be the
perfect vehicle for the equate oil fires and for two crucial reasons first the intense blast
of water and air immediately cuts the flame off from the fuel supply footage from the time shows
big ones snuffing out the pillar in a matter of seconds but perhaps more crucially bigwind also
draws huge amounts of heat out of the atmosphere ensuring that the spewing oil doesn't reignite
upon hitting the scorching sand this also allows teams to approach the well to Capital off once and
for all following the attack billions of gallons of crude oil beneath the Sands of Kuwait burned
some estimates say between four and six million barrels Up in Flames every single day for 30 weeks
accumulated losses accounted for as much as 10 percent of the Region's entire oil Reserve worth
nearly 160 billion dollars at the current world prices but more than a global economic disaster
the fires were an even bigger ecological disaster Daily 3 400 metric ton clouds of soot spanning
over 800 miles black in the Skies over the Gulf States poisoning rain and killing Wildlife as
far away as Thailand these clouds absorb between 75 and 80 percent of the sun's radiation causing
a drop in climate for the entire region Airborne studies in the Kauai oil fires in the spring of
1991 revealed the sulfur dioxide emissions equaled nearly 60 percent of those from the electrical
utilities of the entire United States the fires also contributed two percent of CO2 emissions that
year for the entire planet during its run Big Win put out nine burning oil wells in Kuwait
more than most of the other teams working at the time when it comes to net emissions burning a few
hundred gallons of diesel fuel to extinguish Flames that were having such a massive impact
on the environment is a win in a big time way without big win it's possible those fires could
have burned even longer and who knows knows how deep the impact might have been yes sometimes the
most ecological choice is the one that eliminates fossil fuels and in the long run those are the
solutions that we want to see flourish but sometimes in the short term engineers and
problem solvers need to make the best available Choice with the best available options and in
this case big wind was the best choice today big win still exists though it hasn't seen a
ton of action lately most Nations still prefer more traditional methods of extinguishing oil
fires but even now big wind remains one of the most impressive applications of creative problem
solving resulting in one of the wildest most badass firefighting Vehicles the world has ever
seen do you have other ideas for crazy inventions or engineering Marvels you want us to cover in
future videos sound off in the comments below but real quick before we get into that let me
just take a quick minute and say thank you for watching if you haven't already hit that like
button and the bell icon for notifications for our future videos also join our Discord
community and join our newsletter we can't cover every story we want to but we want to send out
cool Weekly Newsletter with some really fun and cool stories to join that links in the description