So where do old Boeing 747 Jumbos go to die?¹ Well, most of them wind up in the aircraft “boneyards” scattered around the world, some are cannibalised for parts, and a few end up as ornaments, attractions or exhibits. Yesterday, I reported on one that is destined...
A Boeing 747 Jumbo will be the centrepiece of an underwater theme park planned for Bahrain. HH Shaikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al Khalifa has announced the launch of the world’s largest underwater theme park, covering an area of over 100,000 square meters, which will include a 70-metre...
A new book about Ypres has just been published. There must be dozens of books about the WW1 battles for Ypres in Belgium, but Ypres – part of Oxford University Press Great Battles series – is not really about the strategy or carnage in the Ypres Salient....
As part of its 100th anniversary¹ celebrations, British Airways (BA) has announced it will be painting a Boeing 747 in the much-admired design of its predecessor British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC). The livery from the 1964 – 1974 BOAC era will adorn a B747, reg: G-BYGC. The...
The wreck of an aircraft discovered in 1996 near Papua New Guinea could turn out to be the Lockheed Electra 10E in which Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan disappeared on July 2, 1937. William “Bill” Pennington Snavely, Jr certainly thinks it could be, but he is reluctant...
Vilnius is using its Railway Station and the adjacent Lithuanian Railway Museum to host an ‘Independent Christmas Village’, and the city is making a statement about the hyper-consumerism that tends to take over the holiday season, encouraging a more local and authentic approach to Christmas instead. Their...
Picture this. East v. West relations have deteriorated to the point where somebody in the Soviet Union launches a flurry of nuclear Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) at the USA. Suddenly, as they begin to re-enter the atmosphere over northern Canada, a set of steel hatches behind a...
South Africa’s famous Blue Train has some new rolling stock. The Blue Train is actually two trains. Train Set 1 was shorter than its sibling and had no Observation Car, but it has now been extended to 15 carriages with the addition of a new observation car...
Air Astana, the national carrier of Kazakhstan, has taken delivery of its first Embraer E190-E2 aircraft, and used the opportunity to promote the cause of an endangered species – the Snow Leopard. The aircraft, which arrived today at Nursultan Nazarbayev International Airport in Astana after a series...
Nearly one in five motorcycle owners is now female, compared with one in 10 less than a decade ago, and the data suggests that women could soon make up one quarter of owners, which would be a major shift in motorcycling demographics, according to the latest national...
London North Eastern Railway (LNER) has installed a system called Seat Sensor on all its trains. The new technology, which has just gone ‘live’, can tell which seats are free and, by referencing LNER’s booking data, whether a seat is reserved. Passengers can now see the status...
I know just how astonishingly efficient shipyards are these day. I’ve seen it. As soon as one, assembled-but-not-kitted-out, ship is floated out of the Meyer Werft (Germany) dock, the first blocks for the next ship are already being laid, and at Fincantieri (Italy) there are several ships...
The TASS news agency is reporting comments made today by Russia’s Deputy Defense Minister Colonel-General Andrei Kartapolov about the 19th-century armored gunboat The Strelets. The Strelets was a 200ft (61m) Uragan class, armoured monitor. She joined the Baltic Fleet in 1865, and was taken out of active...
The Canadian War Museum in Ottawa will conclude its commemoration of the First World War Centenary with a special exhibition opening today. Victory 1918 – The Last 100 Days, explores the critical role the Canadian Corps played in the series of battles that led to the Allied...
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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