2017 is an important year for Finland – the 100th Anniversary of Independence. Finnish nationalism developed in the east of the country, on what is now the border with Russia, and after the country’s birth on 6th December 1917, its independence was first tested in the Winter...
Designs for four new terrifying but beautiful structures for the Zhiangjiajie National Forest Park in China’s Human province, have been unveiled by their French designers, Martin Duplantier Architectes. The Chinese are fast developing a love-hate relationship with vertigo experiences in their cities and their landscapes, and the spectacular...
The massive 57-kilometre Gotthard Base Tunnel (GBT) in the Swiss Alps is finally opening this weekend after 17 years of construction. From Sunday 11 December, train passengers will be able to speed between northern & southern Switzerland in 17 minutes, cutting the overall cross-border journey time from...
One of the key travel trends identified in this year’s World Travel Market – Global Trends Report, compiled by Euromonitor International is the return of supersonic air travel. Thirteen years after the demise of Concorde, a number of initiatives are underway to re-open the supersonic air travel...
The National Army Museum has saved T E Lawrence’s dagger, robes and kaffiyah for the nation thanks to two grants from the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF) totalling £113,400. Lawrence was given the dagger, known as a jambiya, by Sherif Nasir in 1917 after the victory of...
The Museum of Flight in Seattle, Washington, has been working with Microsoft to digitise the interiors of some of its aircraft. It means that visitors to the museum, and to the museum’s website, can wander through the cockpit and interiors on the Surface Pro tablets carried by...
Deutsche Bahn’s new long-distance train, was presented to the public yesterday at Berlin Central Station. The new ICE 4 train, which according to Dr. Rüdiger Grube, Chairman of the Management Board and CEO of Deutsche Bahn, “ushers in a new era” comes with numerous technical innovations and...
Two electric driverless buses started working on the streets of Lyon this week at the beginning of a year long trial. The keyword is “working”, though… not “earning”! The buses, manufactured by a Lyon-based company, Navya, have been road tested in other French cities but until now,...
The Australians are celebrating a maritime milestone. To commemorate the landing in Western Australia of the Dutch Explorer Dirk Hartog, the Duyfken Replica – a reproduction of a typical 16th century Dutch trading vessel – has begun a ten-week, 1000-kilometre journey along the Western Australian coast. Dutchman...
On 14 May, a Grumman EA-6B Prowler was delivered to the Hickory Aviation Museum in North Carolina from the US Marines Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron 1 (VMAQ-1). The Prowler is an amazing aircraft, but not perhaps the prettiest (!) and not one seen often exhibited in aviation...
The Pacific Aviation Museum Pearl Harbor has started restoration work on one of the planes that attacked them on December 7, 1941. The Nakajima B5N Torpedo Bomber was the pride of the Imperial Japanese Navy and was considered the most effective aircraft of its kind at the...
The classic sail ship cruise line, Star Clippers, has a new square-rigger currently under construction at Brodosplit shipyard in Split, Croatia. Steel cutting for ‘Hull 483’ – whose name, announced this week, is to be: Flying Clipper – commenced in last September. When she is completed in...
A small 400 sq metre museum is being added to the Thiepval Memorial Visitor Centre in Picardy, France. The opening will be a prelude to the Centenary commemorations of the Battle of the Somme, the iconic battle on the 1st July 1916 which was the bloodiest day for...
A brand new railway museum is due to open this spring in Japan’s cultural capital, Kyoto. Kyoto Railway Museum will open on 29 April 2016, with a over 50 trains on display, telling the history of Japanese rail from the steam era to modern day Shinkansen bullet...
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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