There are a couple of changes in store for visitors to Normandy’s top US D-Day sites this year. The Normandy American Cemetery – Pre-booking postponed A year ago, the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) announced that as a result of growing visitor numbers (over 1m a year)...
Operation Dynamo was the name given to the hurried extraction of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), plus allies (mostly French), from the beach at Dunkirk (Dunkerque) in May/June 1940. The Musée Dunkerque 1940 is located in Bastion 32, the headquarters for the French and Allied forces during...
The Great Central Railway (GCR) has confirmed that Class 55 Deltic D9015 Tulyar will be based at the heritage railway during 2026* and that it will hopefully mark a major milestone for diesel preservation when it hauls its first passenger train in 29 years. Owned by the...
One of the earliest eVTOL developers, Autoflight, has revealed Matrix, the world’s first 5-ton class electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft. Matrix successfully completed a public full transition flight demonstration this week at the company’s low-altitude flight test facility centre in Kunshan,Jiangsu Province. During the demonstration...
California’s classic coastal highway with its magnificent views over the Pacific, has reopened ahead of schedule, much to the relief of locals, especially those who rely on tourism. The scenic highway, which hugs the cliffs and is prone to the occasional landslide, is one of California’s most...
CNN Films has acquired the documentary feature Why We Dream, which follows a group of centenarian WWII veterans as they make a pilgrimage to Normandy, France for the 80th anniversary of D-Day. Directed by Meredith Danluck and produced by Delta Air Lines’ Window Seat Studios, in partnership...
This summer, the three Ford GT Mk IIs that crossed the Le Mans 24hr finishing line (virtually) together in that landmark 1966 race, will appear together once more at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in July and the Goodwood Revival in September. Hands up, who loves the...
The French Ministry of Culture has announced a nationwide festival of photography in 2026 to mark the 200th anniversary of the world’s first permanent photograph recorded by Frenchman Nicéphore Niépce. Niépce’s photograph, ‘View from the window at Le Gras’ dated between 1826-1827 was taken from his study...
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...
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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