T-90 Tanks Doing Ballet
Just when I thought I had seen everything ...
Popular Mechanics reports ...
I'm at a dress rehearsal at Zhukovsky test center, about 25 miles outside Moscow, for a theatrical performance called The Invincible and the Legendary, set to debut the next day at a Russian arms exposition. The dry name of the Russian expo—the Engineering Technologies International Forum 2010—belies its military focus and mass-market entertainment value. One part defense-technology trade show and one part summertime festival, the Forum's first two days are designated to showcase modern military hardware for potential foreign customers, but over the weekend the Forum becomes a patriotic pep rally. To get people's attention, the organizers at the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation (FSMTC) need a show. Russian entertainment is not known for subtlety: Enter the T-90s, stage left.
[Hat Tip: Boing Boing]
Heck, the US Army had a helicopter square dance team!
I first learned about it in article in Air&Space magazine.
“In the early 50’s, the U. S. army used an innovative way to recruit needed pilots: a Helicopter Square Dance Team. Operating four Bell 47’s (Army H-13’s), two helicopters were dressed as boys—wearing straw hats with pipes in their painted on mouths/faces—and two were girls—with blond wigs (dyed floor mops), and faces like Betty Boop (for those of you old enough to remember that cartoon favorite).
The faces were painted on oil cloth and scotch taped inside the bubble. The skirts covering the skids were made of target practice cloth. With a “Caller” on the mic and the band playing “Turkey In The Straw,” the Team would go through fast dance maneuvers, rotors whirling: “Ladies Do-Si-Do” – “Allemande Left” – as Air Show crowds and TV audiences watched, fascinated.”
http://www.whirlygirls.org/mc/page.do?sitePageId=70950&orgId=whg
And I thought the U.S. military was doing some crazy ish. . . this easily tops them all.
What no pink Tutu’s?
“swan lake” it ain’t, da?
Beats the alternative use at least…
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/7338097/200-Russian-tanks-found-abandoned-in-forest.html
Still not as good as the flying and shooting T-80 video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ljs24S7uvws
Yeah, SHOW… “Show” is last thing what our manufacturers can perform. Especial for papuans.
Meh.
I thought the tanks had hydraulics and were hopping ghetto style.
Lol
Whilst the tank ballet proved to be a mildy amusing diversion, the real stars of the show were the battalion of Spetsnaz commandos singing ‘Don’t Stop Believing’ in a Glee style