M2 High Speed Tractor

Aircraft tug

Maximum speed 22 mph (35 km/h)

The M2 High-Speed Tractor (or colloquially M2 Cletrac) was an aircraft tug used by the United States Army Air Forces from 1942.^[1]^[2]

Construction

The M2 is a fully tracked vehicle designed to tow aircraft on primitive airfields. It was equipped with a 10,000 lb (4,500 kg) winch with 300 ft (91 m) of 3⁄8 in (9.5 mm) cable, an auxiliary generator (3 kW at 110 volts DC), and an air compressor (3 stage, 16.7 CFPM, 2,000 PSI)

History

The M2 was standardized in February 1941 as Medium Tractor M2.

Surviving artifacts

Surviving examples are at the Estrella Warbird Museum,^[3] the Wright Museum,^[4] the AAF Museum in Danville, VA, Overloon War Museum,^[5] the Pima Air & Space Museum,^[6] the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum, the Yanks Air Museum, Chino CA, the March Field Air Museum in Riverside CA, The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Bright's Pioneer Museum, Plainsburg CA, two at the Danville Armour Museum, Danville, VA, and one privately held in Belton, SC, USA. Abroad, one can be found, in perfect condition, at the American Air Museum, in Duxford (UK).

References

^ United States. War Department (September 1943). TM 9-2800 Standard Military Motor Vehicles. Retrieved 2018-03-18.
^ David Doyle (2003). Standard Catalog of U.S. Military Vehicles. Krause Publications. ISBN 0-87349-508-X.
^ "EWM Webmaster redirect". www.ewarbirds.org. Archived from the original on 2018-06-26. Retrieved 2012-09-24.
^ "Wright Museum - M2 Cletrac High Speed Tractor". www.williammaloney.com.
^ Overloon, Oorlogsmuseum. "Home - Oorlogsmuseum Overloon". www.oorlogsmuseum.nl.
^ "Museum Aircraft". www.pimaair.org.