J. Walter Christie was a pretty talented designer of tanks. But, as happens to many people with talent, he got a little messianic now and again. That photo represented one of those ideas which just couldn't get out of his head.

He was fixated on developing a light tank that could be carried under a plane. You'd spin the tracks up to high speed, then the plane would skim along the ground, the tank would touch, the pilot (or tanker) would release, and voila! Aerial deployment of tanks.

Oddly enough, the Army never showed much interest in the concept, much less actually designing an aircraft capable of it. I'll let the pilots among us discuss all the technical reasons why even if technically feasible (an arguable question for the tech at the time) it's such a bad idea from so many perspectives. Not the least of which is flying some lumbering transport aircraft just feet above ground that is anything flatter than a runway.

That's a drawing of a M1940 Christie tank (which was never built) grafted on to a picture of a YB-17 as already determined by the Smart Guys in the comments.

Well done.

And now for something complete different.

So, whatziss?

You guys are always whining about scale, etc - so here's some context.

Here's a larger view, as if that's going to help.