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...
I love this quirky little French 6-wheeler from 1939. It’s a Laffly V15T with 4-wheel drive, plus an extra two wheels to get it over lumps & bumps! It had a top speed of 58 kph and was used primary by the French cavalry as an artillery...
The Marmon Herrington Mk4 SARC (South African Reconnaissance Car) was introduced to Allied forces in 1943 after wheeled vehicles had proved very useful in the first engagements with the Afrika Korps. The SARC was a speedy (85 km/h, 53 mph) reconnaissance vehicle, lightly armoured (12mm – 30mm)...
This is the new monument dedicated to the men of ‘The Mighty Eighth’ in Normandy. The set of four life-size bronze statues of medal-awarded USAAF Airmen was unveiled at the La Fière Memorial Park near Sainte-Mère-Eglise on 5th June. The four airmen (L-R) are Staff Sgt. Maynard...
This is the fuselage, or ‘gondola’, of the rather extraordinary French WW1 Voisin X bomber and gunship. The Voisin X was a two-seat pusher biplane produced either as a night bomber or a gunship armed with a 37 mm (1½”) Hotchkiss cannon and a defensive 7.7mm machine...
The Swedish army has always wanted to arm itself independently with Swedish designed vehicles (The Strv S being an obvious example), but at the same time it has been pragmatic enough to recognise when local design and development is lagging behind, and has gone shopping for foreign...
There’s more to this weird box-frame aeroplane than you would imagine. Over 1500 were produced by the Caudron brothers, René and Gaston, in their factory at Le Crotoy on the eastern side of the Somme estuary, from 1913 onward. And it proved to be, despite appearances, tough,...
This is a set of 1/5th scale French siege mortars from the 19th century. They are in the 1,000-piece collection of artillery models at the Musée de l’Armée – Invalides in Paris. Models like this were made for a number of reasons; as royal gifts, as design...
You have to love this amazing car, the Citroën P17 Autochenille (‘caterpillar’ or in this case ‘half-track’). It is exactly the sort of thing I would fully expect to see Tintin driving across the Sahara in, wearing an arab headress and with Capt. Haddock floundering around in...
Dondi’s Astrarium is considered to be the very first mechanical planetary clock. It was designed in Italy at the end of the 14th century by Giovanni Dondi (1330-1388) who created this large brass mechanism, roughly a metre tall, to automate the complex calculations necessary to create horoscopes....
This is a bit of fun. What if the world’s most famous fashion houses muscled their way into the automobile industry? How would their distinctive house styles emerge on four wheels? Of course, in real life many of the world’s top fashion designers have been invited to...
This impressive howitzer was designed for the US Army in the inter-war years to fill a requirement for a modern long-range field-artillery piece. Its development was a little sluggish. The first model was produced in 1920, but it wasn’t until 1940 that the bugs were ironed out...
The Bentley Speed 8 was an Autosport Award Winning Le Mans Prototype race car. It was based on the EXP Speed 8* which first raced in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2001 using a 3.6 litre V8 engine from the Audi R8**. It was Bentley’s...
This giant cannon was cast by the Flemish master gunmaker Remy de Halut* at his foundry in Mechelen, in 1547. The Hercules cannon (El Cañón Hercules) is an extra long culverin – a ‘Royal or Double culverin’ – designed for long range destruction. Its 4.17m (13½ ft)...
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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