Transportation
Many of us take public transportation or fly in airplanes on a regular basis, but have you ever wondered how all of these things work? This collection of transportation articles help explain how people get from place to place.
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Afterburners allow a jet plane to take off from a short runway, such as the deck of an aircraft carrier. What, exactly, is an afterburner and how do they work? Learn the answer to this question in this article from HowStuffWorks.
Black boxes help investigators determine what happened in an airplane accident. What's inside a black box and how does it record flight data?
By Kevin Bonsor & Nathan Chandler
Believe it or not, the marvel we know as the helicopter began as a Chinese top consisting of a shaft - a stick - adorned with feathers on one end.
By Tom Harris & Talon Homer
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Ever gaze in wonder at the huge cranes, bulldozers, backhoes, loaders, shovels and fork lifts on a construction site? Find out all about hydraulic machines, from backyard log splitters to big construction equipment.
A fascinating article that describes how a block and tackle (as well as levers and gears) works!
The loops, rolls and rocketlike maneuvers these stunt pilots perform are astounding. What's the history behind aerobatics and how do they perform those tricks in the sky?
We humans are mobile. Long before flight, FusionMan or even your average automobile arrived on the scene, trains were transporting us all over civilization. How did we get from horse-drawn carts to high-speed trains?
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Air taxis could make a trip to the beach or a visit with friends and relatives go from taking six hours on the highway to a quick, no-hassles plane ride. Find out how the air-taxi system will operate.
By Carolyn Snare
It's the largest passenger jet ever built -- so huge that airports have to be redesigned to accommodate it. Find out just how big the A380 is and what this type of craft means for the future of air travel.
They're the stuff of headlines, often characterized as evil in the sky. But what are drones and how do they get off the ground and fly?
Imagine whipping through the sky at thousands of miles per hour. This special type of jet engine can do exactly that.
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Ready for a fifth mode of transportation? Elon Musk is. He's sketched out a proposal for a nearly supersonic transportation system that could shoot you from San Francisco to Los Angeles faster than you can watch an episode of "Game of Thrones."
It's a bird! It's a plane! It's an unmanned aerial vehicle traveling faster than the speed of sound!
By Chris Opfer
In the world of flight, it's a fine line between flying high and falling fast. Can you name 10 of the innovations that keep planes and their passengers airborne?
One of the key pieces of infrastructure that we could really use in the U.S. is a high speed, efficient, and effective train system.
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In January 2004, the citizens of Milan, Italy, were preparing for a strike that would shut down all public transportation. Since an estimated 28 percent of greater Milan's 3 million populace relied heavily on public transit, the strike meant gridlock for most of the city.
What is the future of supersonic flight? Learn more about the future of supersonic flight in this article.
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport was just named world's busiest airport, again. What lands the ATL in the No. 1 spot again and again?
By John Donovan
Electric-propelled boats, which are much quieter and more environmentally friendly than gas-powered motorboats, are finally beginning to hit the waves and find their market.
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The words aren't arbitrary, so why do pilots and sailors call out 'Mayday!' rather than something else?
You've heard all about the exploits of Amelia Earhart, but do you know the story of Bessie Coleman, the first Black American woman to receive a pilot's license?
Before Yeager did it, people thought it was impossible to break the sound barrier in flight. But he proved them wrong, even flying the plane while nursing two cracked ribs.
Camera-equipped commercial drones are cheaper and require less training. Is it time to say goodbye to your local eye-in-the-sky traffic reports?
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Measuring how fast an aircraft travels depends on whether you factor in the speed of the wind behind it.
Investigations into unruly-passenger incidents by the FAA have soared 168 percent through June over 2020's numbers. What's going on in the unfriendly skies? And what is the TSA doing to protect flight crews?
By John Donovan