Browsing: Vehicles

A Brief History On October 28, 1995, the subway system that serves Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, was the scene of a terrible fire that resulted in the deaths of 289 people, making it the worst subway related tragedy in history.  Among the dead were 286 passengers and 3 subway employees, and sadly, 28 of the deceased passengers were children.  Another 270 people were injured, but believe it or not, it could have been worse! Digging Deeper The reason things were not at least marginally worse was the heroism of Chingiz Babayev, an Azerbaijan Army veteran that risked his own…

A Brief History On October 15, 1910, the non-rigid airship, America, set off from Atlantic City, New Jersey on the first attempt to cross the Atlantic Ocean by humans in a powered aircraft.  After a flight of over 1300 miles, not all in the right direction, and after a harrowing 71 hours of flight, the crew of 5 managed to signal a ship passing below them and along with their cat, entered the lifeboat carried aboard the airship and abandoned the ill fated blimp, watching it drift away never to be seen again. Digging Deeper The “genius” behind the record…

A Brief History On October 11, 1910, with aviation still in its infancy, President Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt took a flight in a Wright Brothers airplane piloted by Archibald Hoxsey, a former auto mechanic from Illinois.  The flight, which took place near St. Louis, Missouri, was the first time an American President had ever flown in an airplane, starting a long tradition of US Presidents flying to vacations, international meetings, campaign events, and whatever other reason the Executive needs to travel. Digging Deeper Oddly enough, Roosevelt’s flight was not the first ever by a national head of state, as the Tsar…

A Brief History On October 10, 1933, a United Airlines Boeing 247 airliner was blown out of the sky over Chesterton, Indiana, the first known instance of an airliner being deliberately taken down by a bomb.  On this deadly flight, only 7 people died, the 3 crew members and the 4 passengers.  (Not a misprint, there were only 4 passengers on the then state of the art twin engine airliner!)  Apparently, terrorists and assassins have also embraced the idea of blowing up airliners to kill their target person or persons or to make their point, because in the years since…

A Brief History On September 27, 1944, the American bombing command in Europe, the US Army Air Forces’ 8th Air Force, conducted its Kassel Mission, a horrendous raid that resulted in the worst losses for any US bomb group in World War II, a tale we told back in 2013.  The 445th Bombardment Group, consisting of 39 Consolidated B-24 Liberator bombers had become separated from the main bombing force, and to make matters worse, also lost their fighter escort.  Although the big bombers suffered terribly, they managed to shoot down about 29 German fighters, a remarkable defensive performance by the…