![]() ![]() Among other innovations : the FT's tracks were automatically kept under constant tension to prevent derailments, while a rounded tail piece facilitated the crossing of trenches. Rodolphe Ernst-Metzmaier, one of Renault's most talented designers, produced the final drawings. Charles-Edmond Serre, a close associate of Louis Renault, was placed in charge of development and production. Renault was unconvinced that a sufficient power-to-weight ratio could ever be achieved with the engines available at the time to give acceptable mobility to the heavy tank types requested by the military. Louis Renault laid down the new tank's design and overall specifications, notably its projected weight which could not exceed 7 tons. Studies on the design of a light tank were initiated in July 1916 by Louis Renault, a major automobile and truck manufacturer. DiNardo states that the distinction should be applied to the earlier Motorgeschütz design prototype, which never saw production, created by the Austrian Leutnant Günther Burstyn. Armour historian Steven Zaloga has called the Renault FT "the world's first modern tank." However R.L. Another 950 of an almost identical licensed copy of the FT (the M1917 or "Six Ton Tank") were made in the USA, but not in time to enter combat. Over 3,000 Renault FT tanks were manufactured by French industry, most of them during the year 1918. The Renault FT's configuration – crew compartment at the front, engine compartment at the back, and main armament in a revolving turret – became and remains the standard tank layout. The FT was the first production tank to have its armament within a fully rotating turret. The Renault FT, frequently referred to in post-World War I literature as the "FT-17" or "FT17", was a French light tank that was among the most revolutionary and influential tank designs in history.
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