GAZ-AA
{{Infobox automobile
| name = GAZ-AA
| image = GAZ-AA truck 4.jpg
| manufacturer = GAZ
| production = 1932–1938
| model_years =
| assembly = Soviet Union: Gorky
| class = Truck
| body_style =
| layout = FR layout
| transmission = 4-speed manual
| wheelbase = {{convert|3440|mm|in|1|abbr=on}}
| length = {{convert|5335|mm|in|1|abbr=on}}
| width = {{convert|2040|mm|in|1|abbr=on}}
| height = {{convert|1970|mm|in|1|abbr=on}}
| weight = {{convert|1810|kg|lb|0|abbr=on}}
| successor = GAZ-MM
| predecessor = Ford Model AA
}}
The GAZ-AA is a truck produced at the Gorky Auto Plant in the Soviet Union from 1932 to 1938, and was the factory's first truck produced under the GAZ brand. Russian-speakers often refer to it as a polutorka ({{lang | ru | полуторка}}) - meaning "one-and-a halfer", with reference to its carrying capacity of 1.5 tonnes (1500 kilograms).
History
On 31 May 1929, the Supreme Soviet of the National Economy of the Soviet Union ({{langx |ru| Высший совет народного хозяйства СССР}}) made an agreement with the Ford Motor Company to produce Ford Model A and Model AA vehicles, and the Soviet Metallostroy organisation
{{cite book
|last1 = Austin
|first1 = Richard Cartwright
|author-link1 = Richard Cartwright Austin
|year = 2004
|series = Moral Imagination in Industrial Culture
|title = Building Utopia: Erecting Russia's First Modern City, 1930
|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=WUu7QI1j7icC
|publication-place = Kent, Ohio
|publisher = Kent State University Press
|page = 24
|isbn = 9780873387309
|access-date = 26 June 2023
|quote = [...] 'Metallostroy,' the Soviet organization that hired and supervised construction labor [...]
}}
({{langx |ru| Металлострой}}) started constructing an American-designed automotive plant in Nizhny-Novgorod.
Initially, 10 Ford Model AA trucks were built at the plant,{{cite web |title= Zis lorry. "One and a half" GAZ-AA |url=https://korea1.ru/en/avtotop/zis-polutorka-polutorka-gaz-aa-istoriya-tehnicheskie-harakteristiki/ |access-date= 21 August 2021}}{{cite web |title= First Soviet Ford AA truck leaving Assembly Plant No. 1 "Gudok Oktyabrya" in Nizhni Novgorod |url= https://www.researchgate.net/figure/First-Soviet-Ford-AA-truck-leaving-Assembly-Plant-No-1-Gudok-Oktyabrya-in-Nizhni_fig12_262098142 |access-date= 21 August 2021}} under the name NAZ (for Nizhny Novgorod Avtomobilny Zavod). Soviet engineers prepared their own mechanical blueprints for production, specifying a truck to be made with thicker steel and to have an upgraded suspension system. In 1932, the city of Nizhny Novgorod adopted its new name, Gorky - after Maxim Gorky (1868-1936) - and in 1933, the plant was renamed to Gorky Avtomobilny Zavod, and the trucks began to use the model designation GAZ-AA. By 1932, mass-production had started, with around 60 trucks built at the plant daily from knock-down kits sent by Ford.{{cite web |title=ОАО "ГАЗ"/Горьковский автомобильный завод (ГАЗ)/ ГАЗ-АА |url= http://denisovets.ru/gaz/gazpages/gazaa.html |access-date= 21 August 2021}}
Soon, assembly started of GAZ-A passenger vehicles,{{cite web |title= JSC "GAZ" / Gorky Automobile Plant (GAZ) /GAZ-A |url= http://denisovets.ru/gaz/gazpages/gaza.html |access-date=21 August 2021}} which were based on the Ford Model A and were also built from knock-down kits imported into the Soviet Union. By that time, GAZ-AA trucks comprised the majority of trucks used by the Red Army. Several modifications of the GAZ-AA trucks started getting produced, including dump trucks (410),{{cite web |title= Опрокидка малой механизации Самосвал ГАЗ-С1/ -410 |url= http://www.gruzovikpress.ru/article/1187-samosval-gaz-s1-410-oprokidka-maloy-mehanizatsii/ |access-date= 21 August 2021}} semi-trucks (MS), fire trucks (PMG-1){{cite web |title= Пожарный автомобиль ПМГ-1: история, устройство и ТТХ Источник |url= https://fireman.club/statyi-polzovateley/pozharnyiy-avtomobil-pmg-1-istoriya-ustroystvo-i-tth/ |access-date= 21 August 2021}} and tractors (905).{{cite web |title= ОАО "ГАЗ" (Горьковский автомобильный завод) ГАЗ-905 |url= http://denisovets.ru/gaz/gazpages/gaz905.html |access-date=21 August 2021}}
By 1938, nearly 1 million of these trucks had been produced and sold. By that time a modernized variant of the GAZ-AA trucks, under the GAZ-MM index entered production, with the engine from the GAZ-M1, that boosted the vehicle's power to 50 hp, with the compression ratio increased to 4.6, giving a maximum speed of 80 km / h.{{cite web |title= ОАО "ГАЗ"/Горьковский автомобильный завод (ГАЗ)/ ГАЗ-ММ |url= http://denisovets.ru/gaz/gazpages/gazmm.html |access-date=21 August 2021}}{{cite web |title=ГАЗ-ММ: машина жизни |url= https://www.zr.ru/content/articles/17170-zhivyje_klassiki_gaz-mm_mashina_zhizni/ |access-date=21 August 2021}}
Variants
- GAZ-AAA: three-axle version
- BA-27: military vehicle using GAZ-AA assemblies
- GAZ-1: 16-seat bus version
- GAZ-2: 18-seat bus version
- GAZ-3 (later GAZ-03-30): 16-seat bus variant; basically a combination of the GAZ-1 and GAZ-2
- GAZ-03-32: ambulance version of GAZ-03-30
- GAZ-5: three-axle, 25-seat bus version
- GAZ-07: short wheelbase version for BA-6, BA-6M and BA-10
- GAZ-13: 13-seat bus version
- GAZ-13B: modified GAZ-13
- GAZ-14: gas generator (wood gas) version with V-5 generator
- GAZ-40: prototype gas generator version, based on third-party developments of the V-5 and NATI-G11 generators
- GAZ-41: gas generator (wood gas) version with NATI-G14 generator
- GAZ-42: improved GAZ-41
- GAZ-42M: modernized GAZ-42
- GAZ-43: gas generator (coal gas) version with NATI-G21 gas generator
- GAZ-44: compressed gas-fueled version
- GAZ-45: LPG fueled version
- GAZ-55 (initially GAZ-55-55): ambulance variant
- GAZ-55B: staff bus version of GAZ-55
- GAZ-60: half-track version made for the Red Army
- GAZ-60P: prototype improved version of GAZ-60
- GAZ-65: halftrack version with removable tracks
- GAZ-65op: prototype improved version of GAZ-65
- GAZ-66: prototype halftrack based on the GAZ-AAA
- GAZ-410 (initially GAZ-S1): dump truck
- GAZ-905: tractor version
- GAZ-SH: prototype snowmobile studies
- PMG-1: fire truck
References
{{reflist}}
Further reading
- Andy Thompson: Trucks of the Soviet Union: The Definitive History. Behemont 2017, {{ISBN|978-0-9928769-5-1}}.