In the Soviet Union, there was one curious bureau - the Main Union Bus Design Bureau (GSKB), which was engaged in the implementation of conceptual experimental designs in metal with an eye to production in the medium term.
The Bureau has produced many copies of promising buses, but in November 1968 they even surpassed themselves. The GSKB team, with the help of LAZ specialists, developed a truly revolutionary city bus, which had no analogues not only in the USSR, but also in the world.
The body of the bus was completely load-bearing and was a truss, from which triangular windows appeared.In order to be able to make a flat low floor practically along the entire length of the cabin, we had to abandon the traditional transmission and make the bus front-wheel drive (!), And place the engine in the front part, on the right from the driver. The suspension of both axles was made pneumatic, which ensured a high ride comfort. It is also curious that the seats in the middle and rear parts of the passenger compartment were installed "according to the metro principle" - along the axis of the bus. This solution made it possible to increase passenger capacity and, together with wide doors, to facilitate the movement of people around the cabin.
According to the test results of the LAZ-360, it became clear that front-wheel drive was an obvious drawback in domestic conditions. When fully loaded, the weight distribution was violated, and the front wheels skid helplessly on slippery roads.
Following the construction of the experimental LAZ 360 bus, GSKB began designing an even more complex model of the "low-floor", which received the designation LAZ 360EM.
The running sample was built by the middle of 1970. The body structure and interior organization were borrowed from its predecessor. The car has grown in length up to 11 meters, has got two more axles and additional doors. Thanks to a more rational layout of the cabin, the nominal capacity has increased to 109 people (the maximum is up to 155). At the same time, all the seats (31 seats) were already located along the sides of the body.
But the main fundamental difference was hidden inside. The bus was electrically powered, i.e. power transmission was used, similar to railway transport. The design of the power unit consisted of a ZIL-375 engine (under the driver's cab), which rotated the shaft of the GET-120 generator, which in turn powered DC motor wheels that rotate the wheels of the two rear axles.
As a result, the circuit with an electric drive turned out to be more perfect, but due to the lack of element base and the weak development of electronics at that time, it turned out to be an unrealistic task to bring the idea to life. As a result, until the end of the 90s, the main products of LAZ were the LAZ-695 developed back in the late 50s - early 60s, and the cars that were ahead of the world bus industry by almost 20 years did not go into mass production. from experimental buses for a long time in an abandoned form was on the territory of NAMI, from where, apparently, it went to scrap metal. In terms of capacity, width of passages, softness of travel, LAZ-360 is able to compete even with modern models. This allows us to conclude that, perhaps, even now the experienced low-floor equipment developed in Lviv 45 years ago would be quite relevant. But, as often happens, promising Soviet developments remained only developments.
