Browsing: Vehicles

A Brief History On April 6, 2018, a bus carrying a junior hockey team, the Humboldt Broncos of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League, crashed into a semi-tractor trailer near Armley, Saskatchewan, leaving 10 members of the team dead and also killing an additional 6 persons.  Another 13 people were injured, but the driver of the semi survived.  In spite of the horrific cost in lives, this particular tragedy was not among the absolute worst in the history of Canada.  Today we remember some of those terrible traffic accidents that rank among the worst in Canadian history.  Among the worst Canadian…

A Brief History On March 25, 1958, the Canadian supersonic interceptor, the Avro Arrow made its first flight. Designed to fly at Mach 2+ it seemed like a good airplane, but was mysteriously cancelled prior to production, with all partly assembled units and prototypes destroyed.  Other promising weapons have suffered the same fate, some of which may well have been effective while others faded away due to insurmountable problems.  Today we list 10 more military weapons that failed to make it into mass production or widespread issue, expanding on our original article “10 Weapons That Never (Or Barely) Went into…

A Brief History On March 8, 2014, a Boeing 777 jet airliner flying from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia to Beijing, China, disappeared from radar screens and has not been seen or heard from since, despite incredibly large and extensive search efforts.  A total of 227 passengers and 12 crew members vanished from the face of the Earth and grieving relatives want to know why. Digging Deeper While it is true that airplanes have “disappeared” often enough over the course of aviation history, with some highly noted cases such as that of Amelia Earhart (1937) and of course the infamous “Bermuda…

A Brief History On March 5, 1872, George Westinghouse patented the air brake, a system for use with railroad trains.  Prior to his invention, the brakes on trains had to be operated by a brakeman individually turning a large brake wheel on each car.  With the Westinghouse system, the engineer could have all the cars in his train brake at the same time, allowing for safer train travel and longer trains.  Air brakes also revolutionized the trucking industry, as prior to their adoption the use of trucks in mountainous terrain was rather dangerous.  Like many other unsung inventions, air brakes…

A Brief History On March 4, 1970, the French submarine, Eurydice, apparently blew up violently while underwater off the coast of Cape Camarat in the Mediterranean Sea.  As you can imagine, all 57 hands were lost.  When the boat (submarines are called “boats” instead of ships, regardless of their size) was discovered several weeks later, only pieces were found spread over a large area.  No cause of the explosion was ever determined, a not uncommon fate of submarines and the sailors that operate them.  Today we will touch on several incidents that should give anyone contemplating a life as a…