Ok, I’m sure this has been troubling you, as it has me. I had an alarm set on my phone to mark the winter solstice (3.03pm Sun 21st Dec). Ok, it’s a little geeky, but it meant that when the moment came I could rejoice in the...
Happy New Year everyone! What does the New Year hold for us, in the Mechtraveller worlds of engineering and technology? Well, off the top of my head, there are a few anticipated/scheduled events and a couple of predictions… Autonomous cars in London – We know Waymo has...
This is some interesting engineering. Have you wondered, as you watch your Amazon parcel “just 5 stops away”, what our world would look like if we suddenly lost GPS? It’s not just you, and a squillion delivery drivers. It would effect all transport systems (apart maybe for...
The Museum of Science and Technology in Vienna (Technisches Museum Wien) is, like us in the UK, celebrating 200 years of technical and social advances brought about by the railway. Their temporary exhibition Under the Spell of the Railway – 200 Years of Rail Transport, opened in...
The Chimney Lift at London’s Battersea Power Station (BPS) has reopened with a new interactive experience area designed to engage and inform visitors about the huge and historic former electricity generating plant. What is the Chimney Lift? It’s a glass enclosed lift that rises up through one...
Designed in 1943 by Austrian aeronautical engineer, Raoul Hafner, for the British Airborne Forces Experimental Establishment (AFEE), the Hafner Rotabuggy was a standard Willey’s Jeep converted into an autogyro*. What is an autogyro? Well, like a helicopter it has rotor blades, but unlike a helicopter they are...
The potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) accelerates by leaps and bounds, in all aspects including creativity. This is not really “cornerstone Mechtraveller” in that it hardly meets the ‘extraordinary engineering, history, industrial heritage, technology… and where you can see it criteria’ for a Mechtraveller post. Nor is...
REGENT Craft, the developer and manufacturer of all-electric Seaglider vessels, and DHL Express have signed a strategic Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to explore the use of electric Seaglider vessels for short haul, coastal, and island logistics, at this week’s Dubai Airshow. The Seaglider Ground Effect Vessel (GEV),...
The German National Tourist Office (GNTB) and Nuremberg Municipal Museums are turning their minds to apps in a bid to reach younger audiences. The GNTB has recently entered two of its latest digital projects, the game app Grimm’s Quest and the mixed reality app UNESCO World Heritage...
A Chinese company’s combination multi-rotor, 2-seat eVTOL aircraft and state-of-the-art transporter vehicle, is already taking orders, especially in the Middle East where it has recently completed its first global public manned flight. In the UK, hardly anyone has heard of XPENG but it is one of China’s...
The 255 silhouette Falklands Tribute remembrance art installation by Standing with Giants will be open to the public during November at Nothe Fort in Weymouth, Dorset. The charity artwork comprises 255 life-size figures representing Seafarers, Royal Marines, Army, and Airmen and 3 civilians who lost their lives during...
The Airborne Museum at Sainte-Mère-Église is considered a ‘must see’ for those touring Normandy, and it’s usually one of the first or last stops on a tour of the Normandy beaches because it’s out there on the western flank, which is exactly why the US airborne forces...
The five bridges over the river Dives marked for destruction by Allied airborne forces on the night of 6 June 1944 are rarely visited these days, but they were crucial to securing the eastern flank of the D-Day landings. So it’s definitely worth exploring the area to...
Yesterday, the French shipping company Neoline held a naming ceremony in its registration port of Nantes for its first sail-powered Roll-on Roll-off (RoRo) cargo ship. As I write, Neoliner Origin, is heading down the Loire estuary* passing the Chantiers de l’Atlantique shipyard at St. Nazaire where she...
This is a niche blog about technically-minded travel. It reflects my own interests in the mechanical, technical, historical, engineering, transport and military world.
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