A visit to the 95th Bombardment Group museum and Red Feather Club is a rare treat, and when I say rare, I mean rare, so grab any opportunity to visit with both hands! The USAAF’s 95th Bombardment Group – the only Eighth Air Force Bomb Group to...
The return of supersonic air travel is a step closer with a show of faith by the world’s largest airline, American Airlines, who have paid Boom Supersonic a non-refundable deposit on 20 aircraft, with an option for an additional 40. When/if those orders are completed, American will...
We Have Ways Fest is a three-day weekend festival in Buckinghamshire* of World War II history talks, demonstrations and presentations… with beer! The event is hosted by the We Have Ways podcast duo – Al Murray and James Holland. This year’s festival definitely built on the first...
Heritage Open Days is an annual event in England, when hundreds of buildings, or parts of buildings, that are not normally open to the public, open their doors for a few days in September. This year that’s 9-18 September 2022. It has become England’s largest grass roots...
The Dutch Mining Museum (Nederlands Mijnmuseum) re-opened in May this year (2022) in the old Kneepkens department store in Heerlen, south Netherlands. Heerlen is in that panhandle that extends south to Maastricht along the Meuse between Belgium and Germany, and includes the Limburg region, famous for its...
Croatia’s long-awaited Peljesac Bridge was opened yesterday by Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic. The stunning piece of engineering is a cable-stayed road bridge, supported by six pylons stretching 2.4km (1.5 mile) from the Croatian mainland to the Peljesac peninsula. The significance of the bridge is that it ends...
The answer is NO, but what’s interesting is that if she had made her ill-fated breakout into the Atlantic a year later, she might have been. By then, if the same ships had intercepted her they would have been carrying red (HMS Rodney) and yellow (HMS King...
The Norfolk Tank Museum is more like an enthusiastic private collection than a formal museum. It is also a work in progress… or at least many of the tanks are. That doesn’t matter because, while it might not be as big or formal as for example, the...
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)...
With the upcoming Masters of the Air mini-series due for release soon, the Memorial Museum for the USAAF 100th Bomb Group at their former base at Thorpe Abbotts in Norfolk, is likely to become the focus for a lot of attention. Masters of the Air is the...
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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