Havila Voyages, the new operator on the Norwegian ‘Hurtigruten’ Coastal Service route in Norway, is building four new ships with eco-friendly hybrid propulsion systems. The first two ships will go into service next year. There’s been something of a sea-change in Norwegian coastal waters. The legacy operator,...
The UK Government yesterday launched a consultation on automated systems capable of taking vehicle control to make driving safer and easier. The consultation is to help shape how innovative new systems could be used in future on GB roads. The call for evidence will look at the...
Istanbul Airport has opened a new airport museum available to all international passengers. A growing number of international gateway airports around the world, such as San Francisco, Amsterdam & Paris, have become annexes to their national and local arts & culture museums, showcasing their national heritage to...
The HMS Victory conservation project has reached a major milestone with the completion of her new support system. As I wrote 18 months ago (Review: HMS Victory. Take a look, there’s a good explanatory video), the National Museum of the Royal Navy (NMRN) and BAE Systems have...
Long overdue, the National Museum of the Royal Navy (NMRN) and Mary Rose are collaborating on ticketing. It was always ludicrous that a visit to the Historic Dockyard in Portsmouth meant dealing with two separate ticketing systems. Ludicrous but understandable. The two organisations that share the Historic...
RMS Titanic, Inc (RMST), the company that has been recovering artifacts from the wreck of the Titanic since 1987, says it plans to make a ninth dive to the wreck in 2021, in a bid to recover the Marconi Wireless Telegraph from the Titanic’s radio room. The...
Hunter’s Yard runs a rental fleet of traditional wooden sailboats on the Norfolk Broads in Eastern England with a loyal base of customers who share a common appreciation for the historic vessels and their way of life. Sailors on the Broads have traditionally used long poles called...
Zeleros Hyperloop, based in Valencia, has completed a financing round worth more than €7 million to support the development of its hyperloop design. The company is working on its own version of Elon Musk’s hyperloop concept – trains travelling at supersonic, even hypersonic, speed in near-vacuum tubes,...
SWAROVSKI OPTIK are today launching a revolutionary optical device that pairs with a phone app to identify and catalogue wildlife. Swarovski is well known around the world as a costume jewelry manufacturer, but they also put their glass grinding skills to other uses and the Optik division,...
Audi have launched livestream guided factory tours of their plant at Ingolstadt. The AudiStream tours, which went online yesterday, are pre-scheduled. You can select a tour, in English or German, of different vehicle production lines such as the A3 or A4, and watch selected production stages in...
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History is to be the new home of American author Robert M. Pirsig’s 1966 Honda Super Hawk motorcycle featured in his book, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values. Pirsig’s book, originally published by William Morrow in...
British Airways are looking at ways that 3D printing technology could improve punctuality and reduce carbon emissions by bypassing the need to fly spare parts out to its fleet around the world. The thinking is that 3D printers located at airports around the world, could be used...
The Old Town Model Railroad Depot, a small model railway museum based in San Diego’s historic Old Town district, will remain open under new ownership. I can’t resist either a model railway or a good news story, so this is a welcome piece of news. The Depot,...
The museum ship SS John W. Brown, one of only two World War II ‘Liberty’ ships preserved and still operational*, is looking for a new home. The Liberty ships were the cargo-carrying workhorses of the Allied war effort. They were produced with conveyor belt efficiency in huge...
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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