Tornado Tank

Todays storm chasers are getting bolder and bolder while taking pictures of tornados. Every year, the footage shows that the camera people are getting closer and closer to the funnel itself. For the ultimate ECU (extreme closeup) The Tornado Tank will take viewers into the epicenter of the vortex. A modified eight wheeled armored tank would have a weight of approximately twenty five tons, with a speed of about 60mph/100 kph. New fairings will be installed to give the tank a rounded shape and eliminate right angles to minimize the effect of the wind. These fairings will continue down to cover 3/4 of the exposed wheels, so as to form clean and unbroken lines, thus negating the force of the tornado. The loading and storage compartment will be converted to house a large auger, of the same type used to bore holes for telephone poles, a hole in the bottom of the tank will enable this auger to dig into the ground beneath the tank to anchor it in place once it is the direct path of the tornado. While the auger is drilling, an onboard pnuematic air system will deflate the tires, so the whole unit will be lowered closer to the ground to prevent the wind from acting on the bottom of the tank. The turret will be removed and replaced with a rotatable dome made of the strongest impact resistant glass. The dome will have a three bladed wiper system, that extends from the base of the dome, conforms to the glass and is connected at the apex of the dome by a swivel joint and continously sweeps the glass clean. This feature will have to be extremely robust, since the air will be filled with water, mud, leaves, debis, etc. From here, the camera operator could operate in relative safety. The tank could contain numerous scientific instruments to conduct experiments on the inside of a tornado at ground level, and footage from the sight and sound from that vantage point would be unreal. At twenty five tons and bolted to the ground, it's unlikely that even an F5 tornado would be able to pick this up and toss it around. It would be hauled around on a flat bed in the tornado alley section of the US, it might take some time before the right opportunity presented itself, but today's weather researchers are getting better at anticiapating likely areas of sever weather.