A Brief History On June 19, 2005, the United States Grand Prix in Indianapolis, Indiana, suffered a mass exodus when 14 cars running on Michelin tires withdrew from the race due to tire failures by the French tire giant. Only six cars remained to race on Bridgestone tires. Digging Deeper Michelin and Bridgestone combine with Goodyear to make up more than half of all tire sales in the world each year. Each tire company pours millions of dollars into research to make their tires with the best wet and dry traction, best heat resistance, best gas mileage, least noise, longest…
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A Brief History On June 15, 2022, Microsoft retired its iconic internet browser, Internet Explorer, in favor of its new system, Microsoft Edge. Browsing the internet has become a fact of daily life for almost everyone old enough to read and write, providing entertainment, information, trivia, communications, news, and what that odd looking bird you saw in your yard is. Digging Deeper While Microsoft is a giant in the computer industry, the most widely used browser is Google Chrome. Other innovations and features that make internet browsing rewarding include: Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia free to use and of incredible diversity…
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 5, 1976, the Teton Dam on the Teton River in Idaho collapsed, a catastrophic failure while it was filling for the first time! Digging Deeper The 3,100 foot long earthen dam soared 305 feet high and was designed to contain over 288,000 acre feet of water. Sadly, its failure cost the lives of 11 people and over 16,000 head of livestock. Unsuitable soil used to construct the dam was blamed for the failure. The killer dam has yet to be rebuilt. Far from the worst US dam related disaster, the Teton Dam failure is dwarfed…
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…
