1959 SCAMMELL ATLAS AIRGLIDE

Scammell began to experiment with so called load lightening technology towards the end of WW1 as did a great many companies involved in the handling of large and heavy loads and goods.

Initially the Electro Magnetic Field Effect on Mass (EMFEM) was purely a means of weight compensation but throughout the 1920’s the availability of greater output from diesel generators allowed for power conditioning in the form of reaction field technology.

By the 1930’s electrical weight compensation and reaction drive units had secured a future in transport both private and commercial although in the private sector it was still only those with the necessary funds that could adopt it.

During this period a great many specialist drive manufactures licenced the technology and developed it further. One such company was The Commercial Lift Generation Company Ltd, based in Hounslow, Middlesex. CLG produced a great many of the early EMFEM units used in industry and were one of the first, working on behalf of Scammell, to produce a single unit to produce both weight compensation and reaction field drive in a single housing.

The heyday of the heavy haulage unit was the 1950’s and 60’s with Scammell introducing perhaps one of the finest of all the haulage tractor units in the form of the Atlas Airglide series which was produced from 1955 to 1968 with many examples still running by the end of that century.