Bagger 293– The World’s Largest Land Vehicle. 138. Hexie Hao – Trains That Look and Go Like Rockets. 142. Bloodhound LSR– 1,000 mph Across the Desert.
364 KB – 7 Pages
PAGE – 2 ============
CONTENTS Introduction 1Timeline 2 Benz Patent Motorwagen Œ The First Ever Automobile 6Fiat Tipo S76 Œ The First Really Monster Engine 12Octoauto Œ Milton™s Wacky Eight-Wheeler 18RMS Titanic Œ The Tragic Titanic 22Motoruota Monowheel Œ Sitting in a Single Wheel 28Bugatti Type 41 ‚Royale™ Œ A Car Built for Kings 32LZ129 Hindenburg Œ Germany™s Flying Giant 38Panzerkampfwagen VIII Œ The Heaviest Tank Ever Built 44Hercules H-4 Œ History™s Largest Seaplane 48McDonnell Goblin Œ A Plane the Size of a Bomb 52Boeing B-52 Œ The Biggest Ever Bomber 56Hawker Siddeley Harrier Œ The Plane That Could Jump 62Peel P50 Œ A Car So Small You Can Lift It Up 68Ferrari 250 GTO Œ The Fifty Million Pound Ferrari 72Lockheed SR-71 Œ The Fastest Plane That Ever Flew 78Saturn V Œ To the Moon and Back 84Concorde Œ Flying Faster than the Speed of Sound 90 Lunar Rover Œ The Car That Drove on the Moon 96USS Nimitz Œ A Warship the Size of a Town 100Terex 33-19 Titan Œ A Truck the Size of a Factory 106SM1 Motivator Œ The Fastest Woman on Earth 112Gossamer Albatross Œ The Slowest Plane 118Seawise Giant Œ Half a Million Tonnes Œ But It Floats! 122BD-5J Œ Building a Jet From a Kit 126Bell Boeing Osprey Œ History™s Most Expensive Helicopter 132Bagger 293 Œ The World™s Largest Land Vehicle 138Hexie Hao Œ Trains That Look and Go Like Rockets 142Bloodhound LSR Œ 1,000 mph Across the Desert 146Tunnel Boring Machine Œ London™s Biggest Bore 152Waymo Œ The Car That Steers Itself 158Stratolaunch Œ A Plane for Launching Rockets 164PAL-V Liberty Œ A Car That Flies, A Plane That Drives 170 Afterword 172Glossary 174 In memory of Dr Alex Moulton CBE (1920Œ2012).One of a kind.D. L. For Ptolemy, Master of the Watchy. S. T. First published in the UK in 2020First published in the US in 2020by Faber and Faber LimitedBloomsbury House74Œ77 Great Russell StreetLondon WC1B 3DADesigned by Faber and FaberPrinted in IndiaAll rights reservedText © David Long, 2020 Illustrations © Simon Tyler, 2020 The right of David Long and Simon Tyler to be identi˜ed as author and illustrator of this work respectively has been asserted in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not,by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out orotherwise circulated without the publisher™s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in whichit is published and without a similar condition including thiscondition being imposed on the subsequent purchaserA CIP record for this book is available from the British Library978Œ0Œ571Œ34718Œ6 2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1
PAGE – 3 ============
1 1From rockets that can fly at more than 20,000 miles an hour to a motorbike with only one wheel, machines can be brilliant or bonkers Œ and sometimes even both. The longest ship ever built, the heaviest digger and the largest aeroplane, the world™s first working motor car, and its most expensive one. What machines like these have in common is that they all say a lot about the inventiveness and imagination of the people who conceived and created them. Designed to drive faster, fly higher, carry more cargo or Œ in the case of space rockets Œ travel hundreds of thousands of miles to places no one has ever been before, not every idea has worked but the best have been inspired and inspirational, and in a few cases they have gone on to change the world. When Karl Benz built the world™s first automobile more than 130 years ago he couldn™t possibly have known that one day there would be more than a billion motor vehicles running on roads that stretch for literally millions of miles. Similarly, America™s decision to send a handful of astronauts to the Moon eventually needed the talent and expertise of an incredible 400,000 men and women to make it happen. Just imagine: 400,000 scientists, engineers and mathematicians who together spent more than ten years designing, building and flying the mighty Saturn V rocket. With more than three million parts, their creation was easily the most expensive, most complicated machine ever made. But many other machines are still remarkable despite being small and relatively simple. The world™s tiniest jet, for example, does more than 300 miles an hour yet can be towed behind a car and parked in the garage. Another modern flying machine, the Albatross, was constructed using plastic and polystyrene and weighs less than its pilot. The only power comes from the pilot pedalling furiously, but it went on to fly the English Channel and did so without using even a drop of fossil fuel. The ability to build and operate machines like these is one of the things that separates humans from animals Œ that and the desire to do it in the first place. Some of them are useful, others are just a bit of fun, but the best ones are truly magnificent, and fascinating to discover. INTRODUCTION
PAGE – 4 ============
˜˚˚˛˝˜˚˙˛˝˜˙ˆ˛˝˜˙˜˛˝˜˙ˇ˛˝˜˙˘˛˝˜˙˛˛˝˜˙˚˛˝˜˙˙˛˝ˇˆˆ˛˝ˇˆ˜˛˜˚˙ˆ˝˜˙ˆˆ˝˜˙˜ˆ˝˜˙ˇˆ˝˜˙˘ˆ˝˜˙˛ˆ˝˜˙˚ˆ˝˜˙˙ˆ˝ˇˆˆˆ˝ˇˆ˜ˆ˝ˇˆˇˆ 1885 The ˜rst car, the Benz Patent Motorwagen, makes its ˜rst journey 1976 Kitty Hambleton becomes the fastest woman on earth while driving the SM1 Motivator 1979 The Gossamer Albatross becomes the ˜rst human-powered aircraft Seawise Giant, the largest ship ever built, is launched to cross the English Channel1989 Concorde ˚ies right around the world First ˚ight of the Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey, the most expensive helicopter ever built 2008 Work begins on the Bloodhound LSR, an attempt to create the world™s fastest car 2009 Eight vast tunnel boring machines begin digging London™s new Elizabeth LineGoogle launches its Waymo driverless car project 2003 Concorde makes its ˜nal ˚ight2007 China™s high-speed train service begins operating 1983 The BD-5J, the world™s smallest jet aircraft, appears in a James Bond ˜lm1995 The Bagger 293 is completed, the largest land vehicle on Earth 2011Stratolaunch Systems Corporation is formed to create an aeroplane designed to launch rockets into space 2020 The PAL-V Liberty ˚ying car prepares for lift-off 1910 Fiat designs ‚the Beast of Turin™ to break the world land speed record 1911 The eight-wheeled Octoauto is created . . . 1912 . . . A six-wheeled Sextoauto joins itThe RMS Titanic sinks after hitting an iceberg 1923The ˜rst Motoruota, a type of one-wheeled motorbike, is unveiled 1927The Bugatti Royale, the car built for kings, goes on sale1936 First ˚ight of Germany™s LZ129 Hindenburg , the largest and longest ˚ying machine in history 1937 The Hindenburg falls to the ground in ˚ames 1947 The Spruce Goose, the largest ever seaplane, makes its ˜rst and only ˚ight1948 The McDonnell Goblin, one of the smallest aircraft, makes its ˜rst ˚ight1952The American Boeing B-52 Stratofortress, the world™s largest bomber, takes to the sky for the ˜rst time1960 The Hawker Siddeley Harrier ‚Jump Jet™ makes its ˜rst ˚ight 1962 The tiny Peel P50 microcar is launched The Ferrari 250 GTO, now the world™s most valuable car, goes on sale 1964 First ˚ight of the massively fast SR-71 spy plane1944 The Panzerkampfwagen VIII Maus is completed, the heaviest tank in the world 1971 Lunar rovers (or Moon buggies) are used as part of the Apollo missions to the Moon 1972 Launch of the USS Nimitz, the world™s largest warship 1973 First appearance of Canada™s Terex 33-19, the king of trucksTIMELINE1967 Saturn V rocket™s ˜rst ˚ight1969 Maiden ˚ght of Concorde, the Anglo- French supersonic airliner
PAGE – 6 ============
67BENZ PATENT MOTORWAGEN THE FIRST EVER AUTOMOBILE »Produced less than one horsepower »Brakes made of wood »Bystanders were terri˜ed of the noise With more than a billion motor vehicles on the roads today, it is almost impossible to imagine a world without the motor car. However, the first one was only invented about 130 years ago. Before this most people had to walk everywhere, and almost everything they needed was carried on wagons pulled by horses. The car™s inventor, Karl Friedrich Benz, was a clever German engineer whose father was a train driver. Karl trained as a locksmith and was fascinated by machines of all sorts. Like many people were starting to do, he travelled around on a bicycle, but he could see that having everything else pulled by horses caused a lot of problems, especially in towns and cities. Horses need feeding and watering, and on average each one produces around sixteen kilograms of manure and nearly ten litres of urine every single day. So in a big city like London or Berlin, with several hundred thousand working animals, the streets were always filthy and the smell was awful. Karl was determined to find an alternative. Before long he had a company manufacturing industrial machines. These included a series of small engines, which were powered by a type of gas made from coal. The company was successful, and Karl employed two dozen people, but he never lost his love of bicycles or gave up his idea of inventing something to replace the horse. In 1885 he began to construct what he called his Benz Patent Motorwagen . Being interested in bicycles, he chose tall, narrow wheels with wire spokes. These were much lighter than the heavy wooden wheels fitted to carts and carriages. He also designed a brand new engine, which was small but quite advanced for the time. It was located between the rear wheels, which were driven by a pair of chains. The little engine produced less than one horsepower. Most family cars today are at least a hundred times more powerful, but this was more than enough for Karl™s spindly three-wheeler, especially as it turned out to be quite difficult to drive. The steering wheel wouldn™t be invented for another decade, so Karl™s car used a rod called a tiller, which worked a bit like a rudder on a boat. Unfortunately, The steering wheel wouldn™t be invented for another decade, so Karl™s car used a rod called a tiller, which worked a bit like a rudder on a boat.
364 KB – 7 Pages