Alkett VsKfz 617 / NK-101 Minenräumer

By William Pearce Safely clearing land mines has been a challenge vexing militaries since shortly after the devices’ first widespread use in World…

MAN Double-Acting Diesel Marine Engines

By William Pearce Maschinenfabrik Augsburg-Nürnberg (MAN) was involved with diesel engines since their inception. From 1893 to 1897, MAN* worked with Rudolf Diesel…

Napier Nomad Compound Aircraft Engine

By William Pearce D. Napier & Son (Napier) was a British engineering firm that designed and manufactured aircraft engines since World War I.…

General Motors / Electro-Motive 16-184 Diesel Engine

By William Pearce This image shows an Electro-Motive-built 16-184A engine (since the triangular access ports have flanges around them). The top of the…

Alfa Romeo 1101 28-Cylinder Aircraft Engine

By William Pearce In the early 1930s, Alfa Romeo began to build aircraft engines based on foreign designs that it licensed for production.…

Tesla Coil – A terrible weapon or a dream of global electricity generation?

The Tesla Coil and its quirky creator The term ‘mad scientist’ could apply to Nikola Tesla. Perhaps he is the very source of…

The Chopping Block: The Fate of Warplanes after WWII

A similar fate awaited many outmoded fighter planes. P-39 Airacobras, P-40 Warhawks, and F4F and FM-2 Wildcats were nearly worthless as far as…

HILLER FLYING PLATFORM: HILLER VZ-1 PAWNEE

The Hiller Flying Platform, the closest design to mimic a magic carpet, still captures the public imagination. The Hiller Aviation Museum houses some…

Love, Sex, and Marriage in Ancient Egypt

Although marriages in ancient Egypt were arranged for communal stability and personal advancement, there is evidence that romantic love was as important to…

Ukraine gets its F-16s, but big challenges lie ahead

Big news and lots of happy pictures, as the Dutch and the Danes both confirmed they would be transferring their entire F-16 fleets…