When it opened to the public on Thursday (1st Feb), the Jebel Jais Flight zip line in Ras al Khaimah leapt into the record books as the World’s Longest. Who is now second? Well, the zip line business is full of superlatives – Fastest, Biggest drop, Highest...
The Henry Ford had a record-setting year in 2017, welcoming over 1.77 million visitors. What is it? Well, it’s not exactly a museum or attraction. It describes itself as a “history destination that explores the American experience of innovation, resourcefulness and ingenuity that helped shape America”. Located...
This is one of the latest variations of Supermarine Spitfire and this particular one was built right at the end of WW2, in June 1945. Spitfire TE462 can be found on static display at The National Museum of Flight, Scotland. Truthfully, she’s my least favourite version of...
Work is starting this year on a £5m museum to tell the story of the Royal Navy in Plymouth. It’s part of a 12-year plan by the National Museum of the Royal Navy (NMRN) to highlight the role and heritage of its branches in their key locations....
The movie industry news media are talking about Tom Hank’s latest project, a World War 2 movie about the Atlantic Convoy War called Greyhound, to be shot on board the WW2 destroyer, USS Kidd. Hanks has written the screenplay and will play the lead character. His script...
The Royal Navy decommissioned its last Westland Lynx helicopter in March last year, and the British Army Air Corps is about to do the same. The twin-engined multi-role Lynx began service with the Army in 1979 and the Fleet Air Arm in 1981. Its ability to hunt...
After six years of planning and construction a new state-of-the-art cable car made its inaugural journey today on the Zugspitze, Germany’s highest mountain. The new cable car replaces the old Eibsee cable car* that has been taking up to half a million passengers a year up the...
Perfect for petrol-heads! Saxony in Germany is highlighting new developments at two of its automobile visitor attractions for 2018. They suggest 2018 is the right time to explore Saxony as a place where automobile history was written, by heading first to the small town of Zwickau, which...
A bedding manufacturer is planning a commuter bus fitted with sleeping pods. Remember Harry Potter’s Night Bus? Well this could be a little less…wild! The idea is to give bleary-eyed Brits some shut-eye on their ride home at the end of a long day. The “snoozliner” is...
It’s hard to get a grasp on just how significant the Lumière brothers were to cinematography, how tirelessly creative, and what astonishingly brilliant engineers they were. A visit to their spectacular family home in Lyons certainly helps. Auguste and Louis Lumière were the firstborn sons of Charles-Antoine...
Turkey’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism has officially declared 2018 to be the Year of Troia (Troy). The archaeological remains of Troy are to be found on the outskirts of the town of Hisarlik in the Anatolian province of Çanakkale close to the Dardanelles. The site, excavated...
Triumph Motorcycles has just opened (yesterday) its new £4 million Triumph visitor experience and factory tour. The new facility at the Triumph Motorcycles HQ and factory site in Hinckley, Leicestershire will enable fans to get up close to the most iconic and rare Triumph motorbikes in the...
As many know, Croydon Aerodrome in the 1920s & 30s was a cutting edge airport featuring the world’s first control tower, developing the concept of Air Traffic Control, and inventing the radio call “Mayday”. It was also the major aviation hub for London, and the gateway through...
Imperial War Museum (IWM) – Duxford is primarily an aircraft museum, but the westernmost building is not, like the others, a giant hanger full of aircraft. Instead it is where the lion’s share of the IWM’s military vehicle collection is displayed – in the Land Warfare building....
This is a niche blog about technically-minded travel. It reflects my own interests in the mechanical, technical, historical, engineering, transport and military world.
COPYRIGHT © MECHTRAVELLER 2016-2025, including all images unless indicated otherwise.
