monster machines
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Monster Machines: This ‘Flying Banana’ Keeps Britain’s Trains From Running Off The Rails
The UK rail system includes more than 16,000km of track, which, until relatively recently, had to be inspected at a walking pace. This laser-blasting, track-inspecting locomotive, however, does so faster than a speeding bullet (train).
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Monster Machines: America’s First Flying Aircraft Carriers Just Couldn’t Stay In The Sky
Flying aircraft carriers are a great idea on paper — especially when they’re commanded by the likes of Nick Fury — but in reality they’re more death trap than sky island. Or, at least, the short-lived USS Akron was. When it crashed off the New Jersey coast in 1933, it took nearly everybody on board…
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Fast-Acting Nuclear Reactor Will Power Through Plutonium
Even the latest generation of nuclear power reactors can only harvest about five per cent of the energy stored in their radioactive fuel supplies, and the toxic leftovers must then be buried deep underground to slowly decay over hundreds of thousands of years. But thanks to a new breed of sodium-cooled pool reactor, we may…
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The Soviet History Of The Failed Antares’ Engines
Turns out, the Antares launch vehicle that exploded during lift-off last week was riding on refurbished disco-era rockets that not even the vaunted Soviet Space Program could manage to get off the ground.