Transport
Discover facts about transport. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Transport
The cable car that passes through a skyscraper
Running out of airspace means getting deeply creative with your wire placement. The Singapore aerial transit line physically passes straight through a hole in…
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Why sleeper trains loosen between cars at night
Carriages are inherently violent, shaky metal tubes, which makes trying to rest in one a terrible idea. To solve this, evening routes use variable coupling…
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The strange vehicles that drive into rivers
Nothing instills confidence like a strange metal tub that acts like a street trolley but insists it can float. These bizarre contraptions were originally…
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Why the Suez Canal has no locks
Most major waterways require complicated gates to raise and lower massive ships, but the Suez just blasted a straight hole through the dirt. Because the…
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Automatic transmissions use planetary gears
Your car shifts gears using a setup that sounds like a sci-fi cult. A central 'sun' gear is surrounded by orbiting 'planet' gears, held together by a ring,…
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A jet engine swallows tons of air every second
Imagine a vacuum cleaner capable of sucking up a small house instantly. Modern turbofans pull in literal tons of atmospheric air per second, compressing it…
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Rigid airships contain internal metal frameworks
Not to be confused with mere balloons, these massive sky whales are basically flying aluminum skeletons. The internal structure prevents the airship from…
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Catamarans feature two parallel hulls for stability
One hull is prone to wobbling, so marine designers just slapped two together with a deck in the middle. This wide stance completely eliminates the awful…
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Jet engine fan blades withstand immense centrifugal force
Spinning metal at supersonic speeds is totally a calm and predictable process. These titanium blades endure forces equivalent to having an entire bus dangling…
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Sailboat rigging utilizes complex tension networks
A single giant wooden pole will immediately snap in high winds without help. Masts are kept perfectly upright by a frantic web of high-tension wires pulling…
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The scratch pad inside an astronaut’s helmet
Having an itch on your nose while wearing a pressurized bubble is pure torture. Engineers brilliant enough to land humans on another celestial body duct-taped…
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Rocket engine bells expand gas for maximum thrust
That massive cone at the bottom of a booster is not just a fancy exhaust pipe. It is meticulously contoured to flawlessly expand the incredibly hot,…
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Windshield wipers use a four-bar linkage
Keeping your view clear relies on the mechanical equivalent of a flailing skeleton. A single rotating motor is connected to a series of rigid pivoting arms,…
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Modern passenger drones function as massive quadcopters
Because what scales up better than a loud, buzzing plastic toy? These oversized multi-rotor machines use electric batteries to lift humans directly into the…
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Barges lack built-in engines and rely entirely on tugs
Some boats are literally just floating metal tubs entirely devoid of independence. Barges have absolutely zero internal propulsion or steering mechanisms.…
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How firefighting planes refill from lakes
Landing to refill tanks takes far too long when a forest is currently a blazing inferno. These insane amphibious planes skim the surface of a nearby lake at…
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Hot air balloons inflate using a powerful ground fan
You cannot simply blow enough hot breath into a giant canvas bag to make it fly. Ground crews use monstrous industrial fans to blast raw cold air into the…
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Pilots communicate using a specialized phonetic alphabet
Because 'B as in Boy' is just too ambiguous for a chaotic radio channel. Pilots use words like Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie to spell out crucial information over…
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Why seaplane floats have a step underneath
Water gets extremely sticky at high speeds, acting like a giant suction cup. To avoid being permanently glued to the lake, seaplane floats feature a sharp…
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Why gliders carry water they later dump
Adding heavy weight to an engine-less aircraft sounds like complete insanity. However, making the glider physically heavier actually allows it to punch…
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The hidden turbine that powers a plane on the ground
Because huge engines are too greedy to run while parked at a terminal. The very back of the plane hides an auxiliary power unit that generates electricity and…
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Why rotary engines use a spinning triangle
Pistons going up and down were entirely too boring for some automotive designers. Instead, these engines rely on a rounded metal triangle wildly spinning…
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Your car runs on thousands of tiny sparks
Every time you drive to the grocery store, you are commanding thousands of microscopic thunderstorms. These simple ceramic-coated metal plugs force…
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How school-bus-sized spacecraft fit in rockets
Getting a spacecraft the size of a school bus into orbit is terribly tricky. Engineers wildly hinge the delicate solar arrays utilizing complex geometrical…
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