French boat builder, Iguana Yachts, unveiled its latest amphibious boat at the Cannes Yachting Festival 2022 last week. The Iguana Foiler – “A boat that sails, lands and flies” – is an electric version of their previous models… with foils. The Normandy based company says that sustainability...
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...
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...
The clock museum, or ‘Musée de l’Horlogerie’, in Saint-Nicolas-d’Aliermont presents a really interesting social and industrial account of the rise and partial decline of a town focused on a single technology. Back in the 1950/60s, Saint-Nicolas-d’Aliermont was renowned in France as a centre of light engineering, particularly...
If you’ve ever suffered from ‘range anxiety’ in an electric vehicle (EV), think what British adventurer Chris Ramsey is about to experience on this epic car journey. Next year, he plans to drive a Nissan Ariya e-4ORCE from the magnetic North Pole to the South Pole. I...
EcoClipper have published the 2022 sailing schedule for their first cargo & passenger sailing clipper, De Tukker. EcoClipper is a Dutch startup who believe that climate change has created a demand for emission-free shipping using traditional sail ships on regional and global routes. They plan to create...
“Do many English people know where Nelson lost his arm?” asked my guide, Darío. My kneejerk response was almost ‘Of course! Everyone knows it was here on Tenerife!’ But then it occurred to me… actually, hardly anyone knows it was at the battle of Santa Cruz de...
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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