engineerd™, on February 27th, 2013
The Grigorovich M-16 was a variant of the Grigorovich M-9 with floats and developed to operate in winter conditions. It became a very important WWI-era plane for Russia, and, ironically, Finland. It’s primary role was as a reconnaissance plane, though it did have a variant called the GASN which was a torpedo-bomber.
The Colt M16 rifle is the military variant of the AR-15 first developed by ArmaLite in 1959. By the late 1960s it was the standard issue infantry rifle for the US armed forces. It is still in use by Navy and Marine forces.
The only logical question, then, is, “How do they compare?”
Continue reading M-16 vs. M16
engineerd™, on May 3rd, 2012
A while back, Number_Six sent a tip in (to tips at atomictoasters dot com) on the Bangalore Torpedo. I had heard of these before, but I had never really looked into how they work. If you haven’t a clue what I’m talking about, hit the jump.
Continue reading Bangalore Torpedo
engineerd™, on April 20th, 2012
This gun is called The Paris Gun because it is what Germany used to strike terror in the hearts of Paris’ citizenry during the summer of 1918. It’s a modified naval artillery gun with a 131 foot long barrel that could launch a 264 pound projectile 25 miles into the stratosphere. Hidden in [...]
HycoSpeed, on March 31st, 2012
 
Necessity has been deemed the mother of invention, and nothing seems to escalate innovation like war. Be it hot or cold, wartime sees a need for bold new ideas, and that need is usually accompanied by an injection of funds that allows many a hair-brained scheme to actually see the light of day. Between AT’s very own Fodder and engineerd™, we have been enlightened to many a kooky WWII and Cold War creation, and I know we can count on more to come.
This post opens an occasional series to explore the original ’War to End All Wars’, and look at some technological developments arising from that conflict. Let’s kick it off with the Zeppelin manned observation basket!
Continue reading Innovations of the Great War: Spähkorb
engineerd™, on December 22nd, 2011
One of the things that us engineers and other left-brained individuals sometimes forget is the human factor. It isn’t just us that forgets it, it turns out.
Continue reading The Human Factor
engineerd™, on November 11th, 2011
Today is quite a day. Rememberance Day in the British Commonwealth States, Armistice Day in most of Europe, Independence Day in Poland, and Veterans Day in the United States. As you probably already know, this day was originally set aside to celebrate the end of World War I and remember the sacrifice of those who died defending freedom in the Great War. That ship above, the HMS Dreadnought fought in exactly zero battles in WWI. However, it’s a big reason why WWI happened in the first place.
Continue reading HMS Dreadnought: Gamechanger
Deartháir, on June 6th, 2011
 Not exactly a precision instrument. Techie stumbled across this great find a few days ago, which in and of itself is remarkable. Generally, Techie will spend countless hours on YouTube, searching for videos of kittens waking up, or lengthy monologues from comedians who aren’t really funny, which he will bookmark and force us to watch for two or three hours before we finally get to watch whatever it is we wanted to watch on his enormous big-screen. At first, we thought he actually found these videos entertaining. Then we realized that he did it to test and see how long we would put up with it before we punched him in the coin purse, and tracked the results in an Excel spreadsheet. For science!
So when he presented me with this video, and it turned out to be frickin’ cool, you can imagine my bewilderment. I still don’t completely understand it, but I’ll overlook that little detail, and content myself with the knowledge that it involves zombies blowing up.
Continue reading Startup: Where Does He Get Those Toys?
Sparky, on June 2nd, 2011
Ladies and gentlemen, tomorrow marks the 73rd passing of that annual American holiday known as National Donut Day!
WOOT!!
A tradition since 1938, National Donut Day occurs on the 1st Friday of every June and was conceived as a way to help feed the needy of the Great Depression, and commemorates the efforts of Salvation Army volunteers who handed out fresh donuts and coffee to troops during WWI, and later WWII.
Known as “Lassies”, these wonderful ladies worked in “huts” (often derelict buildings) and provided writing supplies, stamps, baked goods and a clothes-mending service among other perks to the U.S. enlisted men along the front lines. The introduction of that exotic fried cake known as the donut was an idea that was born out of necessity, and changed the shape of a nation (literally) forever. Continue reading National Donut Day!!
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