GAZ-51 is a truck made by the Gorky Automobile Plant with a payload capacity of 2.5 tons. Development of a new medium-tonnage truck began at the Gorky Automobile Plant in 1937; the designers were tasked with creating a reliable, undemanding, and easily repairable vehicle capable of working in off-road conditions and on low-quality fuel. In designing it, Soviet engineers deliberately drew on the best foreign technical solutions and components, adapting them to domestic operating conditions — an approach the plant had adopted as early as the late 1930s. The first road tests of the prototype took place in May 1939; serial production was planned to begin in 1942, but the war got in the way.
Work on putting the GAZ-51 onto the assembly line resumed in 1943 — at the Gorky Automobile Plant, which had not yet fully recovered from the bombings, with the design being refined in parallel with preparations for production; in 1945 the vehicle was presented to the government.[1][1][1][1] It was produced in series from 1946 to 1975 and became the most widely produced Soviet truck of its time. On its base were built dump trucks, buses, and the GAZ-51P semi-trailer tractor.
Sources
- auto.mail.ru — Development of a new medium-tonnage truck began at the Gorky Automobile Plant in 1937. The designers were tasked with creating a reliable, undemand