Chronological Feed

A fascinating and classic example of an Airship sighting from the famous wave throughout America during the 1890's. This Particular example was cited in Jacques Vallee's famous book "Passport to Magonia: from Folklore to Flying Saucers" "I had gone down to Texarkana to bring back a special, and knowing that I would have some eight to ten hours to spend in Texarkana, I went to I lonian (Arkansas) to do a little hunting. It was about 3 o'clock in the afternoon when I reached that place. The sport was good,…

Analysis of US patent #20060145019A1, “Triangular Spacecraft”, filed by John St. Clair (a Part II on him coming soon), and officially abandoned as of 2006. The patent describes the craft as “A spacecraft having a triangular hull with vertical electrostatic line charges on each corner that produce a horizontal electric field parallel to the sides of the hull. This field, interacting with a plane wave emitted by antennas on the side of the hull, generates a force per volume combining both lift and propulsion.” Further, “This invention is a spacecraft…

The B-50 is one of those aircraft that almost nobody talks about anymore, despite being incredibly important. Most people assume it was just a B-29 with a different name. It really wasn't. While it shared the same basic appearance, Boeing redesigned much of the aircraft. More powerful R-4360 engines, a stronger airframe, a taller vertical stabilizer, and countless internal improvements gave it significantly better performance than the bomber it evolved from. Its timing was unfortunate. The B-36 and, shortly afterward, the B-52 would go on to dominate the public imagination,…

The following an excerpt from a French Lieutenant's diary of his experiences at the Fort de Vaux in June 1916: "We had scarcely arrived at the right of Fort de Vaux, on the slope of the ravine, when there came an unprecedented bombardment of twelve hours. Alone, in a sort of dugout without walls, I pass twelve hours of agony, believing that it is the end. In front of us are not less than 1,200 guns of 240, 305, 380, and 420 calibre, which spit ceaselessly and all together, in…

Sometimes history can be bizarre and borderline unbelievable, and sometimes fate brings two families together by force. In 1864, at a train station in Jersey City, N.J., the Booth and Lincoln families would have a lesser-known encounter, a year before the infamous events at Ford's Theatre. Robert Todd Lincoln, the first child born to President Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln, and the President's only child to survive into adulthood, accidentally fell onto the train tracks at the station, in the path of an oncoming train. For most people, this…

A short post on the TU–22M backfire, my favorite Aircraft in the Russian armed forces: The TU-22 was first flown in 1959 and saw extensive use in the Soviet Air Force, and still does today in the Russian Air Force as the TU-22M3. The TU-22M3, varies drastically from the TU-22 that first flew in 1959. The M model first saw combat in 1987 in Afghanistan, since then it has seen fighting throughout the world. The Russian Air Force currently fields 66 of these impressive airplanes. These planes have seen combat…

Merdeka 118 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Standing 118 stories and 2,227 feet tall, it is the second-tallest building in the world, surpassed only by Dubai’s Burj Khalifa. It was designed by the Australian firm Fender Katsalidis in collaboration with RSP Architects and officially inaugurated in January 2024. The mixed-use skyscraper contains 84 floors of office space, a Park Hyatt hotel, restaurants, retail areas, and the highest observation deck in Southeast Asia. Its angular glass exterior consists of triangular, diamond-shaped facets, while its structural system combines a reinforced-concrete central core with…

“It sounds like a fairy-tale, but not only that; this story of what man by his science and practical inventions has achieved on this earth, where he first appeared as a weakly member of the animal kingdom, and on which each individual of his species must ever again appear as a helpless infant... is a direct fulfilment of all, or of most, of the dearest wishes in his fairy-tales. All these possessions he has acquired through culture. Long ago he formed an ideal conception of omnipotence and omniscience which he…

"He must stride through the zone of death. There is no escape. No detour, no exception. The relentlessness of this reality compels him to enter danger with open eyes. His path would be meaningless, if it did not mean the fulfilment of his goal: his folk's freedom, which simultaneously encompasses his troop's honour and his own honour. He wields the weapon, which is supposed to bring the enemy destruction, and knows that the enemy also aims to destroy him: a clear, manly decision, you or I!" - Kurt Eggers Few…

Interesting details reported include, the paper refuses to discuss its propulsion mechanism, sighting fears the Confederates will exploit the information, the craft is cited at moving over 120 mph against the wind, the paper states Andrews is in contact with the War Department and the Secretary of War, fascinating stuff. The Full Text is as follows: New York Herald, September 8, 1863, p. 3 AERIAL NAVIGATION An Extraordinary Invention—The Air Navigated Successfully—The Great Air Ships—Incidents of Their Trial Trips** We have this week the pleasure to record the success of…

“He is Himself, both things that are and things that are not. The things that are He hath made manifest, he keepeth things that are not in Himself. He is the God beyond all name, He the unmanifest, He the most manifest; He whom the mind alone can contemplate, He visible unto the eyes as well. He is the one of no body, the one of many bodies, nay, rather, He of every body. Naught is there which He is not, for all are He, and He is all.” -…

“I grant you that the sans culottes , Who please themselves by cutting throats, Might well expect, if times should alter, To be rewarded with a halter; But they who loved the Constitution Prepared the second Revolution; ’Twas they who led their hapless nation Out of the road of her salvation, To follow that fantastic scheme, The rights of man; a boyish dream Where words of vague, ambiguous sense Conduct to bloodiest consequence. They pulled unhappy Louis down, Then mock’d him with a paper crown Which any breath might blow…

Of the roughly 120 Union and Confederate generals present during the three-day Battle of Gettysburg, nine were either killed outright or mortally wounded. More general officers lost their lives at Gettysburg than in any other battle in American history. This thread will cover these nine men, their previous military careers, and how each met his death during those three terrible days in Pennsylvania. The nine generals were as follows: **Confederacy:** Brig. Gen. Paul Semmes Brig. Gen. William Barksdale Brig. Gen. Lewis Armistead Brig. Gen. Richard Garnett Maj. Gen. William Dorsey…

The Prince ought to have no other aim or thought, nor select anything else for his study, than war and its rules and discipline; for this is the sole art that belongs to him who rules, and it is of such force that it not only upholds those who are born princes, but it often enables men to rise from a private station to that rank. And, on the contrary, it is seen that when princes have thought more of ease than of arms they have lost their states. And…

Photo taken by LIFE Magazine of a U.S. Air Force Strategic Air Command B-36 bomber crew wearing cold-weather gear while posing beside their aircraft, somewhere in Alaska, circa 1950s. Behind them is the Convair B-36 Peacemaker, one of the largest bombers ever built, and one of the defining aircraft of the early Cold War. The B-36 belonged to that strange transitional age between the Second World War and the jet age. It was not sleek like the bombers that came after it. It was vast, heavy, and almost absurdly enormous,…