The FT is considered the world’s first modern tank. It was designed by Renault founder Louis Renault himself, as well as French General Jean Baptiste Eugène Estienne. Estienne asked Renault to build a lighter tank than the slow and heavier tanks in service at the time.
The tank featured a 4.5-liter four-cylinder Renault engine, which made it fast for an armored vehicle of the time. It also pioneered several features that are still used today, like having a turret that could spin 360 degrees, a driver sitting at the front of the tank, and the engine located in a separate compartment in the rear.
For Renault, the most important feature of the FT tank was its smaller and lighter frame that would allow a battalion of them to spread out and attack the enemy from behind as cavalry would.
The Renault FT-17 Light Tank was officially used in combat in May of 1918, at a time when the war was coming to an end and Germany was nearly defeated. As David Willey, curator of The Tank Museum in Dorset, England, told Wired, the tank had a psychological effect on the enemy. Its mere appearance would give “demoralized German troops an excuse to surrender.”
