Although Lihacsov Autogyár – better known as ZiL – was mostly known for the 130 truck in the former KGST countries, there were also one or two bolder vehicles around its premises. From the off-road police team transporter to the Guinness record passenger car, everything was in the factory’s repertoire.
In today’s eyes, it would be an attractive startup with bright-eyed professionals. The range has swelled so much over the decades that a book could be filled with it. Even among the more special Soviet vehicles, the ZiL-3906 type monster (“Aeroll”) stands out, which does not know insurmountable terrain. All of this is thanks to a unique solution, because the vehicle is equipped with a structure that is very similar to a track. But only at first sight, because there are no “soles”, but there are 26 pieces of “slippers”.
These are not traditional tires, but off-road tires, and they move on a huge iron chain while driving. There is no doubt that the ZiL-3906 can be considered a mixture of wheeled and tracked vehicles. Probably, the Soviet engineers wanted to combine the favorable characteristics of these vehicles. The original goal was to create a vehicle that could be used for rescue tasks in places where, for example, a helicopter could not land.
It was so “small” because it was designed to fit even on the platform of ZiL’s Blue Bird, off-road vehicle 49065. He was assigned a kind of additional role in the Soviet space program in rescuing astronauts returning to earth. (The Blue Birds were also able to deliver a swamp walker.) The Aeroll didn’t do well, because only one piece was made, but at least it was preserved for posterity, because it can be viewed freely in the ZiL production museum.
It’s hard to imagine how it performed off-road in its day, but it was taken out for a spin 10 years ago. This was captured in the video below, so we don’t have to leave everything to our imaginations regarding its operation.
