Browsing: Vehicles

A Brief History On June 10, 1947, the Swedish industrial powerhouse, Saab, produced their first automobile, becoming just another of the many failed automobile companies by 2016. Digging Deeper In 1989, the auto making portion of Saab branched off to become an independent company, the parent company, Saab, Saab AB, Saab-Scania, and now back to just Saab again, going through its own multi-identity versions. While the Saab branded cars were kind of quirky, they did have a decent reputation for quality and safety, not unlike their Swedish fellow car maker, Volvo. While the Saab name may no longer grace vehicles…

A Brief History On June 9, 1928, Australian Charles E. K. Smith completed the first flight across the Pacific Ocean, an enormous aviation first that is often overlooked. Digging Deeper Smith went to the USA, starting with buying his airplane there from a famed polar explorer.  The Fokker F.VII was a monoplane boasting three engines, capable of carrying up to 10 people for 750 miles at a top speed of 130 mph. Named the Southern Cross, the Fokker was modified to carry extra fuel to make the flight from California to Hawaii and beyond. The next stop was Fiji after…

A Brief History On June 2, 2023, a passenger train slammed into a stopped freight train, derailing cars into the path of another passenger train creating a deadly three train wreck that cost 296 lives and injured another 1,200 people.  Known as “The Odisha Train Collision” in Eastern India, the wreck was the worst train disaster since the 2004 “Tsunami Train Wreck” in Sri Lanka. Digging Deeper The 2004 train disaster in Sri Lanka happened when a tsunami generated by the Indian Ocean earthquake of 2004 engulfed a coastal train, killing at least 1700 passengers, the biggest death toll of…

A Brief History On May 31, 2003, Air France retired their Concorde supersonic jet airliners after a career that started in 1976.  Air France had a fleet of seven of the fast jets, while British Airways also fielded a fleet of seven.  An additional six of the so called SSTs were made for non-commercial users. Digging Deeper The first supersonic airliner, the Concorde was costly to operate and to fly on. The only competition ever created was the Russian Tu-144, jokingly called the “Concordski.”  The Russian version of supersonic airliner lasted from 1975 to 1978, although cargo versions remained in…

A Brief History On May 29, 1945, the Consolidated B-32 Dominator, an American heavy bomber, made its first combat flight.  First flown in 1942 and on active duty in January of 1945, the B-32 was an alternative to the Boeing B-29 Superfortress in case the B-29 did not work. Digging Deeper A development based on the B-24 Liberator, the B-32 used the same engines as the B-29 and had retractable gun turrets bristling with 10 .50 caliber machine guns for defense.  Also proposed were rear facing 20 mm cannons in the engine nacelles.  The pressurized cabin never worked, a major…