Bobcat

[Bob Phillips]

So while this post has been revived and there are so many well informed members contributing let me ask a question..following the success of Canadian industries in WW2 in successfully building all manner of vehicles there seems to have been a mindset in our 1950s military that we could/should be developing a new generation of vehicles.
The armored snowmobile/penguin led to the Mudcat, the Beaver and the Wapiti. At least the Mudcat & Beaver were deemed useful vehicles, but tghey apppear to have quickly died in infancy. In my research it seems there was a hope to develop export markets for some of these vehicles as well as use them in our northlands. Was this just a deluded dream? The monies expended were huge ( though apparently much less than comparable US developed vehicles)
the Wapiti program beginning 1949 and cancelled 1954 after 3 prototypes built cost ( as previously reported ) $1.25 million 1952 dollars. The engines alone were $8000 each!! The Wapiti was reportedly cancelled as it was too big to be air transported- which seems odd since the later Bobcat was to be airportable in a 105mm gun version.
This was also the era of the Avro Arrow etc etc Anyone like to speculate on why there was so much money available for R&D when so much of that technology went right down the drain??