The British Valentine infantry tank was one of several tank types supplied to the USSR under Lend-Lease during the Great Patriotic War. In terms of the number of foreign combat vehicles, as well as its popularity with Soviet tank crews, it ranks second only to the American Sherman. By the end of the war, the Read more…
Building homemade cars is a unique phenomenon. Apart from the USSR, nowhere else did this movement become widespread. People of the most varied professions took up amateur car design: doctors, artists, musicians, workers and engineers. It is known that the space conqueror A.A. Serebrov had a homemade car, and cosmonaut V.A. Aksyonov took part as Read more…
Work on jet engines was already under way in Japan before the start of World War II, although at first it was mainly exploratory in nature. Active interest in jet technology arose when Captain N. T. Tanegashima became head of the engine department at the Naval Aviation Arsenal in Yokosuka (an organization similar in status Read more…
Tasty, fragrant apples and pears. And they are not lacking in vitamins. But keeping these fruits until the next harvest is a problem — and sometimes a serious one. Drying, pickling and jam-making, and other methods of preserving come to the rescue. Moreover, according to gourmets, the value of products prepared for storage increases noticeably Read more…
Vessels of this class can be found in all major ports of virtually every country in the world. These are rescue craft built to assist those in distress, fight fires, patch hull damage, pump water out of flooded compartments, refloat grounded ships, and tow them. They differ in displacement, speed, and technical capabilities. A large Read more…
1980. An unassuming little car, the Fiat Panda, takes to the roads of Europe. At the time, no one could have guessed that it would become a bestseller, remain in production until 2003, and that its successors would still be rolling off the assembly line today. The car appeared at a difficult time. Because of Read more…
This very “flyable” radio-controlled powered hang-glider model was designed specifically for beginners: it is not difficult to build, and it is practically impossible to wreck on landing. A wide variety of materials can be used to make the model — from balsa to basswood (linden). For the formers, even ordinary packaging foam will do, for Read more…
Isn’t it a striking contrast: while the fields of collective and state farms are cultivated today by powerful “Kirovets” tractors, the household plots of rural workers are still plowed the old way — in the best case with a horse-drawn plow, and in the worst simply dug up with a shovel. This work is unproductive, Read more…
Potatoes are often called the second bread, emphasizing the extraordinary importance of this crop. Yet in terms of labor intensity, especially on individual plots, it is far from last on the list. All the more so if all the work is done here the old-fashioned way, without any means of mechanization. A device I designed Read more…
On small cabin boats and yachts, every square decimeter of space counts. Finding a dedicated place for a galley is a problem. So to cook meals you have to moor to shore each time, and the crew has to settle right on the grass and ants. On top of that, you have to carry dishes Read more…
