1955 – Phant Walking Tank (Dan Dare) – Frank Hampson (British)

Pic of cover of Eagle – 20 Jan 1956 Vol 7 No. 1.

Phant Walking tank.

Concept working drawings including the “walking tank” [top left]. From Frank Hampson’s “Ideas Book”.

Dan Dare – Rogue Planet 1955-7

The above images were taken by David Buckley when we travelled to the British Science Museum to study W. Grey Walter’s Electro-mechanical Tortoise on display there. An exhibition of Frank Hampson’s work on Dan Dare was on at the same time [Dan Dare & the Birth of Hi-Tech Britain – June 2009].

In 1985 a biography of Frank Hampson was published (“The Man Who Drew Tomorrow”) which provided a unique insight into the “Hampson” years of Dan Dare and the Eagle. Immensely sadly however, 1985 was also the year of Frank’s untimely death due to a heart attack.

The only previous reference I could find to a “walking tank” was Hutchinson and Smith’s “Super Tank” concept from 1940.


See other early Steam Men and Walking Machines here.

See other early Mechanical Elephants, Horses, and other Walking Animals here.