Transport
Discover facts about transport. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Transport
This monorail needed rocks to balance passengers
Charles Lartigue saw camels carrying perfectly balanced loads in Algeria and thought it was a great idea for a train. His bizarre monorail ran on an A-frame…
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The train that raced at 143 mph with a propeller
In 1931, Germany built a silver railcar equipped with a massive, unshielded airplane propeller at the rear. The 'Rail Zeppelin' set a speed record of 143 mph,…
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The hotel fire that helped put helipads on roofs
When the supposedly 'fireproof' Winecoff Hotel went up in flames in 1946, it exposed a fatal flaw in high-rise architecture. Helicopters, still in their civil…
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The report that reshaped Britain's railways
If you ever want to ruin a British train enthusiast's day, just whisper the name Richard Beeching. This ruthless bureaucrat looked at the sprawling, quaint UK…
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Britain rammed a ship carrying Holocaust survivors
The British Royal Navy apparently decided that a rusty packet ship overflowing with Holocaust survivors was a dire strategic threat. They rammed and boarded…
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The tank that was supposed to swim to Britain
The Landwasserschlepper sounds like an offensive sneeze but was actually Nazi Germany's attempt at building the ultimate amphibious tractor. It was…
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The cash prize that launched the Rocket
Nothing fuels innovation quite like a cash prize and a healthy dose of cutthroat capitalism. In 1829, the Rainhill Trials offered £500 to anyone who could…
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One leather chemist casually saved Indian rail seats
When millions of people are grinding their sweaty bodies into your train seats daily, standard upholstery just isn't going to cut it. Enter Yelavarthy…
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The locomotive built to never turn around
Turning a massive locomotive around on a tiny mountain ledge is a fantastic way to end up at the bottom of a ravine. Robert Francis Fairlie's wildly cynical…
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The tiny tractor that can tow a giant bomber
If you have ever watched a surprisingly small vehicle drag a 300,000-pound Boeing around an airport apron and wondered how physics allows it, thank the…
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The buses that ran on spinning flywheels
Instead of relying on overhead wires or dirty diesel, Elon Bird's postwar transit dream involved strapping three-ton spinning metal flywheels into city buses.…
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A misunderstood radio call caused aviation's deadliest crash
The deadliest accident in aviation history was not caused by engine failure or terrorism—it was caused by terrible grammar and dense fog. In 1977, two Boeing…
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The train engine borrowed from a torpedo boat
Why design a sensible train engine when you can just rip the motor out of a deadly torpedo boat? The Napier Deltic was a profoundly weird piece of engineering…
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The tank-tread sleds that led to snowmobiles
Long before the modern snowmobile became the vehicle of choice for rural daredevils, early pioneers like Elon J. Farnsworth were desperately trying to slap…
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A glacier hid a missing plane for 50 years
In 1947, the BSAA Star Dust vanished over the Andes, sparking wild conspiracy theories about UFOs and sabotage. The truth was just an epic middle finger from…
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Germany once tested driverless pods above traffic
In the 1970s, West Germany tried to solve traffic by moving the gridlock into the sky. The Cabinentaxi was an ambitious Personal Rapid Transit system…
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The race cars powered by zeppelin engines
Wealthy aristocrat Louis Zborowski found early 1920s race cars dreadfully boring, so he started buying massive World War I aero engines and bolting them onto…
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Before smartphones, Cincinnati told time with a giant ball
Long before smartphones silently synchronized to atomic clocks, keeping accurate time required highly theatrical urban infrastructure. Enter the Cincinnati…
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When Philadelphia's giant train shed caught fire
In the late 19th century, architects loved building monumental, arched train sheds to trap a maximum amount of toxic steam and soot for dramatic effect.…
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The 10,000-mile car race with no roads
In 1907, a French newspaper casually challenged drivers to race from Peking (Beijing) to Paris. Keep in mind, this was before "roads" existed in most of Asia.…
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The man who saved Britain's canals from roads
Before L.T.C. Rolt came along, Britain’s historic inland waterways were practically viewed as inconveniently wet ditches waiting to be paved over. After WWII,…
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The Nile once had pedal-powered ferries
While the West was busy building jetpacks and hovertrains, Egyptian architect Ramses Wissa Wassef took a hard left into low-tech genius. He designed…
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Preston Tucker imagined commuters flying over traffic
Before he was ruined by the Detroit auto cabal, Preston Tucker thought the logical next step for commuters was a daily helicopter commute. Tucker didn't just…
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British Rail converted passenger trains for cargo
Instead of buying proper freight trains, British Rail just ripped the seats out of their high-speed passenger units, painted them bright yellow, and shoved…
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