Browsing: Vehicles

A Brief History On September 6, 1939, the Battle of Barking Creek in the skies over England became an historic event for Britain’s RAF, the first loss of an RAF fighter plane and fighter pilot during World War II.  Unfortunately, this “combat” was a mistake, as radar operators misidentified the blips on their screen as enemy aircraft when in fact those menacing blips flying toward the English coast were actually RAF Hurricane fighters. Digging Deeper Spitfire fighters scrambled to intercept the supposed enemy and promptly shot down a pair of the incoming Hurricanes, killing one of the unfortunate pilots.  Such…

A Brief History On September 5, 1970, German race car driver Karl Jochen Rindt was killed in a practice lap accident for the 1970 Italian Grand Prix event at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza in Italy.  Despite succumbing to his injuries, he became the first driver to be posthumously awarded the Formula One World Drivers’ Championship after piling up enough wins to secure the championship. Digging Deeper Despite being born in Germany, Rindt competed as an Austrian.  The 1970 win was his only Formula One World Drivers’ Championship season, though he also won the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans in…

A Brief History On September 3, 1967, Sweden corrected a long-standing mistake by switching from driving on the left, as they do in Britain, Australia, Japan, India, Ireland, Malta, Cyprus, Thailand, Indonesia, Nepal, Bhutan, Suriname, Mozambique, and some other confused places. Digging Deeper All European countries except the islands listed above drive on the right, like the US, Canada, Mexico and the rest of the civilized world.  Just to keep things confusing, some countries such as China and even the US have places where driving is on the left whereas the rest of the country drives on the right! While…

A Brief History On August 30, 1936, the Blue Riband was awarded to the RMS Queen Mary for the fastest transatlantic crossing.  The Queen Mary made its maiden voyage earlier that year, serving until 1967, including transporting troops during World War II, as many as 16,000 passengers on a single trip, a record that still stands. Digging Deeper The Blue Riband eventually went to the SS United States in 1952, but the 81,000 ton Queen Mary over a thousand feet long, along with her sister ship, the RMS Queen Elizabeth, were the standard of luxury until their retirement. Instead of scrapping…

A Brief History On August 26, 1791, American John Fitch patented the steamboat, 16 years before Robert Fulton first sailed his Clermont on the Hudson River.  While Fulton’s steamboat, actually named North River Steamboat, was the first commercially successful steamboat, you may not have heard of Fitch as the first to actually build a working steamboat. Digging Deeper The nature of inventions and who we are taught are the inventors of those gadgets leads to some mistaken impressions as to who invented certain things.  Inventions are often being worked on by different people in unrelated projects, and initial versions of…