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TopClicks
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Curiosities, Wonders & Interesting Facts
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Planes, Trains and Ships
Aeronautics Learning Laboratory - If you don't know your ailerons from your fuselage, you should make for a landing at this site. Learn about the parts of an airplane and the principles of flight. There are some fun experiments in airfoil design you can try, using simple household materials. Don't miss the history of flight in the History section, chock-full of details on early planes and aviators.
AeroNet - AeroNet is an interactive and educational web site about aerodynamics. Inside the AeroNet pages, you'll find information, including: The basic forces which allow planes to fly, the considerations that designers must account for when planning a new aircraft, and an explanatory discussion about fluid dynamics
AeroWeb: The Aviation Enthusiast Corner - Whoa--did you see that precision flying team, the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds? Those F-16 Fighting Falcons sure do put on a great air show! If you want to learn more about this drill team in the skies and see when they will be coming to your area, check this Web site. You'll also find the schedules of lots of other air show performers, plus specifications on different types of aircraft. There are also links to aircraft manufacturers and aviation museums and lots more. You can also listen to live air traffic control instructions from JFK airport in New York.
American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Celebrating The Evolution of Flight - In commemoration of the approaching 100th anniversary of flight, AIAA launched the Evolution of Flight, a campaign to recognize the achievements of the men and women who challenged history and invented the future—while changing life on Earth. Through the campaign, AIAA and its partners, will celebrate the legacy of flight, encourage new talent, and define and promote the next 100 years of aerospace innovation. We hope you will use this site to celebrate the centennial of flight as well as learn about the men and women who made it possible.
Aviation: The Science of Flight - The history of flight, from Leonardo Da Vinci's early drawings to today's avionics, is covered here in an engaging presentation. Discover the principles of lift and other forces that make flying possible. You'll also learn how to become a civilian, military, or commercial pilot. This site was created by students for the ThinkQuest competition.
California Shipwrecks - There's a neat database at this site that lets you search for shipwrecks off the California coast. Say you're looking for wrecks off Mendocino. Plug in that county name and BAM! You'll find records on more than 200 shipwrecks. It tells how they went down, too, from a "monster wave" to a collision. Other parts of the site tell the stories of several famous (and not so well-known) shipwrecks, and suggest links to maritime museums on the Net.
Cyberspace World Railroad - This site has all the bells and whistles that train lovers adore. Hang out in the lounge car and check out the travel stories. Download train typefaces for your computer. In the Lounge area, you can brush up on the General Code of Operating Rules or listen to an actual recording of a train crew member's transmission as he is trapped on a runaway train. And if all the monthly articles about trains and transportation issues are still not enough, you can always switch tracks to one of the over 3,200 railroad links that will have you riding the rails all over the globe.
Exploring Amistad at Mystic Seaport - What has come to be known as the Amistad Revolt began in 1839 as a shipboard slave uprising off the coast of Cuba. It intensified into a debate on slavery, race, Africa, and the foundations of American democracy itself. Popularized by a recent movie, you can read the original accounts of the story at this informative site. The schooner the slaves took over was named Amistad, w hich means "friendship."
Flights of Inspiration - Did you know that the Wright Brothers' first flight, on December 17, 1903, lasted only 12 seconds? Orville was at the controls, and ten years later he remembered it like this, "...I would hardly think today of making my first flight on a strange machine in a twenty-seven mile wind, even if I knew that the machine had already been flown and was safe. After these years of experience I look with amazement upon our audacity in attempting flights with a new and untried machine under such circumstances. Yet faith in our calculations and the design of the first machine, based upon our tables of air pressures, secured by months of careful laboratory work, and confidence in our system of control developed by three years of actual experiences in balancing gliders in the air had convinced us that the machine was capable of lifting and maintaining itself in the air, and that, with a little practice, it could be safely flown." At this site you can yourself be inspired by learning about planes and what makes them fly. There are several hands-on activities and experiments you can try with paper airplanes and other materials.
Great Lakes Shipping - Whether you are looking for information on Coast Guard cutters, harbor tugs, or ocean freighters, you'll find a whole cargo of information at this site. Did you know fleet vessels can be identified by the markings on their stacks? There are illustrations of 30 different ones pictured.
History of Flight - Click anywhere on The Runway of Flight to explore various milestones in aviation history. You'll start with the dreams of Leonardo da Vinci, whose ideas were ahead of available technology. Keep going up the runway to learn about test pilot Chuck Yeager, military aircraft, and commercial flight service. Along the way, you can test your knowledge with some fun simulations. This site, built by kids, is a ThinkQuest Junior contest finalist.
How Deep Can They Go? - The RMS Titanic - For a truly impressive set of links on this famous shipwreck, don't miss Ocean Planet's RMS Titanic site. If you've got Java capabilities on your browser, you'll be able to see the ship traveling across your screen and hear the haunting toll of a ship's bell as you explore the wonderful links they have collected.
How We Made the First Flight - This is Orville Wright's firsthand account of how he and his brother, Wilbur, built and flew the first successful airplane. It is an interesting description of events and an important historical document. This is a great resource for any report on the topic of the Wright brothers, famous inventors, or aviation history.
Huron Lightship Museum - Where it was too deep or impractical to build a lighthouse, but a navigation aid was still needed, a lightship like the Huron was often used. They displayed a light at the top of the mast and offered bells, whistles, foghorns, and other warning sounds as well. Take a virtual tour of this historic vessel, and learn all about the uses of lightships on the Great Lakes. There is also an extensive list of maritime links.
Interactive Model Railroad - This one is pretty cool. You get to give commands to an actual model train at the University of Ulm in Germany! You pick the train you want to control, tell it which station to go to, and if you're quick (and lucky) enough, you're in charge. A box on the page gives the domain name of whoever happens to be controlling the train at the time.
Jeremiah L. Toth Railroads Page - This site features information about Maryland railroad stations; Washington, D.C.'s colossal and historic Union Station; railroading in Delaware, Pennsylvania, New York, and Connecticut; and trolley, interurban, and heavy rail resources. This is a good, fact-driven resource center for railroad buffs looking for on-track information.
K-8 Aeronautics Internet Textbook - How much do you know about the principles of aeronautics? That's the science of how planes, balloons, and other aircraft fly. Knowing how airfoils work can also help you throw a baseball or improve your tennis game--visit this site to learn how this works! You can also explore careers in aviation--from flying airplanes to fixing them.
La Salle Shipwreck Project - The Texas Historical Commission has quite a find on their hands! They are excavating a shipwreck believed to be that of the Belle, one of the ships brought by the French explorer Ren Robert Cavelier, sieur de La Salle. La Salle was the explorer who claimed the Mississippi and all its tributaries for France. His ship was lost in 1686. It lies in about 12 feet of water in a bay about halfway between Galveston and Corpus Christi. Archaeologists built a special double-walled coffer dam around the wreck, then pumped out the water in the middle of this "doughnut." They were then free to explore and carefully record their findings. You can read about La Salle and the recovery of his ship and its artifacts at this very special site.
Landings-The Busiest Aviation Cyberhub - What in the world is a flight plan? A flight plan helps you prepare for the best route of flight before taking off, just as you would map out your summer vacation road trip. A flight plan will include items such as departure and destination airports, navigation aids, fuel consumption rates, and wind information. This will aid in a safer flight for all. You can download software to assist with flight planning, or visit Web sites that will help you plan a round-the-world trip. Find out about airports worldwide (including current weather conditions). Make your-- reservations now; this is a feature-rich site.
Learn to Fly - The Cybercockpit Homepage - Wow--you're taking a flight lesson! The weather is nice, but the winds are from 15 to 20 mph, which means plenty of practice with crosswinds. Yikes, too crooked--better go around and try it again. Wondering what that switch does? A very informative graphic describes all those confusing-looking gauges in the cockpit.
Listen to Chicago Air Traffic Controllers - Live! - If you have RealAudio, you can actually listen to the air traffic controllers in the Chicago O'Hare Airport area. There's also a map so you can tell what airports planes are being directed to, or around. And around. And around.
Mary Rose - July 19, 1545: On the flagship, the Tudor king, Henry VIII, was having a lavish dinner. The Mary Rose , a four-masted warship built between 1510 and 1511, sailed nearby. French ships appeared and fired on the fleet. A little while later, the Mary Rose was lying at the bottom of the Solent, a body of water between Portsmouth, England, and the Isle of Wight. Most of the 500-person crew drowned. The ship was rediscovered in 1971 and was raised to the surface in 1982. This site takes you on a tour of the museum artifacts found on board as well as a dry dock containing what is left of the ship itself. You'll be fascinated at the technology used to raise the ship and the stories of shipboard life during those times. This site has a wonderful children's area, where you can take a tour led by Tudor Rat.
Midway - Long before you were born, battles took place during World War II. One of them involved some ships in the Pacific Ocean near Midway Island. Two U.S. ships, the USS Yorktown and the Hammann, were sunk. Join this expedition to the bottom of the ocean floor, and see and read about the search for sunken vessels.
Military Aircraft Archive - Military aircraft, from World War I to the wars in the Middle East, is featured at this resource. Find out technical details on the planes, see photos of them in action, and recognize the ace pilots who flew them. There are numerous links to other aviation sites on the Internet, too.
New York City Subway Resources - Net-mom likes subways. She's traveled on the El in Chicago, the Metro in Washington, D.C. and Montreal, the T in Boston, BART in San Francisco, and whatever they call the subway in Prague. This Web page is done by people who really love subways. Learn about the history of the New York subway system, and take a virtual tour of some of the abandoned stations and tracks. There are also interesting links to information on subways, trolleys, and interurban rail systems all over the world.
Operation Lifesaver, Inc. - Trains are fascinating, but dangerous. Did you know that a big 150-car freight train traveling at 50 mph can take up to 1.5 miles to come to a complete stop? In the U.S. there are about 6,000 deaths and injuries per year involving trains and cars or pedestrians walking on the tracks. Most train accidents occur when the train is traveling 30 mph or slower. Even at 30 mph, the approximate stopping distance is 3,500 feet, or two-thirds of a mile! Operation Lifesaver educates adults and kids on trains and train safety. There are also coloring pages and suggested activities. Make tracks to visit here soon.
R.M.S. Titanic 83 Years Later - For many years, the sinking of the Titanic was thought to be a disaster in "modern" times. Now, the year 1912 seems long ago in the past. It has even become a distant memory for the dwindling number of people alive both then and now. Web sites such as this become excellent repositories for a great deal of information that could easily become lost. This page not only gives the hard facts of the sinking of the Titanic but also explores (through contemporary newspaper headlines, articles, and cartoons) how the average person of that time found out what was happening in the world--there was no cable TV satellite news back then!
TGVweb - A TGV (train e grande vitesse)is a high-speed system launched in the 1960s comprising train, track, and signaling technologies that when combined make high speeds possible. The TGV system is owned and operated by the French national railways, and it is an integral part of French rail travel. There are directions for "railfanning," or watching these trains as they whoosh by. But don't blink, or you'll miss it. A typical running speed is 186 mph. This site offers a scale model train for you to print out and put together. If you assemble the whole thing, it will be five feet long. Younger kids will need adult help; each car takes about 40 minutes to build and a whole trainload of patience.
The American Experience: Riding the Rails - It was a hard time to be a teenager in the 1930s. There was widespread poverty and many troubled families. Over 250,000 teens ran away from home, looking for better lives. Unfortunately, life on the road was often more desperate and lonely than the lives they left. Although it was dangerous and illegal, many crisscrossed the country by hopping the freight trains of the time. These "kids" are now in their 70s and 80s, and they told their stories for a PBS television program. You can read them at this site.
Titanic - You'll find lots of artifacts, annotated Web links, and facts, lore, and legend at this Titanic offering from Encyclopedia Britannica . Even if you think you've read everything about the Titanic , give this site a try too. One good thing that came out of this disaster was the establishment of an International Ice Patrol. About 1,000 icebergs are tracked each year during the iceberg season, from March to August. The U.S. Coast Guard broadcasts their locations twice daily via satellite and high-frequency radio facsimile.
United States Air Force Museum - The U.S. Air Force museum is in Dayton, Ohio. Take a virtual visit to it here. See hundreds of planes, missiles, and other exhibits in this cyberspace version. Of note is a special feature on presidential aircraft. The "Sacred Cow" was the nickname of Franklin Roosevelt's plane, built in 1944. Because the president used a wheelchair, the plane was equipped with an elevator behind the passenger cabin. This site offers fascinating facts and stories about planes throughout the history of the Air Force.
Wayfinding in the Middle of the Pacific - Journey back through time to the days of the early Hawaiians, and see how they voyaged across the sea without instruments or a compass to guide them. They had only the stars and other natural "signposts" to show them the way. Some young people from several elementary schools in Hawaii thought that was really unusual and cool. So they did a lot of research about the early settlers of Hawaii and entered their Web page in the ThinkQuest Junior competition. You'll enjoy reading about how the original Hawaiians traveled and how they used stars to navigate. You can even play a game that will prove just how much you have learned.
Webville and Hypertext Railroad Company - If you've ever wondered "How to Boot a Steam Locomotive," or what those railroad signal lights mean, or wished you had lots of audio samples of train engine horns--this is your site! It has lots of links and some of the best material we've seen on trains both large and small. (Hint: The Narrow Gauge section is about model railroads.)
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