0008 Scale Models

  • STS 61 Endeavour Launches to Repair Hubble (1993)

    STS-61 was NASA’s first Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission, and the fifth flight of the Space Shuttle Endeavour. The mission launched on December 2, 1993, from Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. The mission restored the space-borne observatory’s vision (marred by spherical aberration in its mirror) with the installation of a new main camera and a corrective optics package (COSTAR). This correction occurred more than three and a…

  • Ford Motor Co. Introduces the Conveyer Belt (1913)

    In 1908, Henry Ford introduced the Model T. Earlier models were produced at a rate of only a few a day at a rented factory on Mack Avenue in Detroit, Michigan and later at the Piquette Avenue Plant (the first company-owned factory), with groups of two or three men working on each car from components made to order by other companies (what…

  • First American Automobile Race (1895)

    The Chicago Times-Herald race was the first automobile race held in the United States. Sponsored by the Chicago Times-Herald, the race was held in Chicago in 1895 among six motorised vehicles: four cars and two motorcycles. It was won by Frank Duryea’s Motorised Wagon. The race created considerable publicity for the motocycle, which had been introduced in the United States only two years…

  • Happy Birthday Ross Brawn (1954)

    Ross Brawn (born 23 November 1954) is a British Formula One managing director, motor sports and technical director. He is a former motorsport engineer and Formula One team principal, and has worked for a number of Formula One teams. Teams with Brawn in an essential role have won eight constructors’ championships and eight drivers’ championships in total. Serving as…

  • Happy Birthday Sōichirō Honda (1906)

    Soichiro Honda (17 November 1906 – 5 August 1991) was a Japanese engineer and industrialist. In 1948, he established Honda Motor Co., Ltd. and oversaw its expansion from a wooden shack manufacturing bicycle motors to a multinational automobile and motorcycle manufacturer. In 1937, Honda founded Tōkai Seiki to produce piston rings for Toyota. During World War II, a US B-29 bomber attack destroyed Tōkai Seiki’s…

  • Patent is Granted for the Distinctive Coca-Cola Bottle (1915)

    The Coca-Cola bottle, called the “contour bottle” within the company, was created by bottle designer Earl R. Dean and Coca-Cola’s general counsel, Harold Hirsch. In 1915, the Coca-Cola Company was represented by their general counsel to launch a competition among its bottle suppliers as well as any competition entrants to create a new bottle for their beverage that…

  • Michael Schumacher Wins His First Formula One Championship (1994)

    Michael Schumacher (born 3 January 1969) is a German former racing driver who competed in Formula One from 1991 to 2006 and from 2010 to 2012. Schumacher won a record-setting seven Formula One World Drivers’ Championship titles, tied by Lewis Hamilton in 2020, and—at the time of his retirement—held the records for most wins (91), pole positions (68), and podium finishes (155), while he maintains the record for most fastest laps (77), among others. Schumacher made his debut Formula One…

  • Happy Birthday Alain Delon (1935)

    Alain Delon (French: (8 November 1935 – 18 August 2024) was a French actor, film producer, screenwriter, singer, and businessman. Acknowledged as a cultural and cinematic leading man of the 20th century, Delon emerged as one of the foremost European actors of the late 1950s to the 1980s, and became an international sex symbol. He is regarded as one…

  • Launch of the Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-66 (1994)

    STS-66 was a Space Shuttle program mission that was flown by the Space Shuttle Atlantis. STS-66 launched on November 3, 1994, at 11:59:43.060 am EDT from Launch Pad 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Atlantis landed at Edwards Air Force Base on November 14, 1994, at 10:33:45 am EST. The Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Sciences – 3 (ATLAS-03) was the primary payload aboard STS-66. It continued…

  • Maiden Flight of the Airbus A330 (1992)

    The Airbus A330 is a wide-body airliner developed and produced by Airbus. Airbus began developing larger A300 derivatives in the mid–1970s, giving rise to the A330 twinjet as well as the Airbus A340 quadjet, and launched both designs along with their first orders in June 1987. The A330-300, the first variant, took its maiden flight in November 1992 and entered service with Air Inter in…

  • Singapore Airlines Carry Out Their First Flight with Passengers on the Airbus A380 (2007)

    Singapore Airlines (abbreviation: SIA or SQ) is the flag carrier of Singapore with its hub located at Changi Airport. The airline is ranked as a 5-star airline and has been ranked as the world’s best airline by Skytrax five times. Singapore Airlines operates a variety of Airbus and Boeing aircraft, namely the Airbus A350-900, Airbus A380, Boeing 737 MAX 8, Boeing 737-800, Boeing 747-400 Freighter, Boeing 777-300ER and Boeing 787-10. The airline has been a member of Star Alliance since April…

  • Founding of the UN Charter (1945)

    The United Nations (UN) is a global intergovernmental organisation established by the signing of the UN Charter on 26 June 1945 and entered into force on the 24 October 1945 with the articulated mission of maintaining international peace and security, to develop friendly relations among states, to promote international cooperation, and to serve as a centre for harmonising the actions of states in achieving those goals. The United…

  • Happy Birthday Sir Roger Moore (1927)

    Sir Roger George Moore (14 October 1927 – 23 May 2017) was an English actor. He was the third actor to portray Ian Fleming’s fictional secret agent James Bond in the Eon Productions/MGM Studios film series, playing the character in seven feature films: Live and Let Die (1973), The Man with the Golden Gun…

  • Happy Birthday Dale Earnhardt Jr. (1974)

    Ralph Dale Earnhardt Jr. (born October 10, 1974), also known as “Dale Jr” or simply “Junior”, is an American professional stock car racing driver, team owner, broadcaster for Amazon Prime Video and TNT Sports, and pod-caster. A third-generation driver, he is the son of the late 7-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Dale Earnhardt and…

  • Happy Birthday Christopher Reeve (1952)

    Christopher Reeve (September 25, 1952 – October 10, 2004) was an American actor, activist, director, and author. He amassed several stage and screen credits in his 34-year career, including playing the title character in the Superman film series (1978–1987). He won a British Academy Film Award, an Emmy Award, a Grammy Award and a…

  • Air Canada was Founded (1937)

    Air Canada is the flag carrier and the largest airline of Canada, by size and passengers carried. Air Canada is headquartered in the borough of Saint-Laurent in the city of Montreal. The airline, founded in 1937, provides scheduled and charter air transport for passengers and cargo to 222 destinations worldwide. It operates major hubs…

  • Maiden Flight of Shuttle Discovery (1984)

    Space Shuttle Discovery (Orbiter Vehicle Designation: OV-103) is a retired American Space Shuttle orbiter. The space-plane was one of the orbiters from NASA’s Space Shuttle program and the third of five fully operational orbiters to be built. Its first mission, STS-41-D, flew from August 30 to September 5, 1984. Over 27 years of service…

  • Maiden Flight of the Panavia Tornado

    The Panavia Tornado is a family of twin-engine, variable-sweep wing multi-role combat aircraft, jointly developed and manufactured by Italy, the United Kingdom and Germany. There are three primary Tornado variants: the Tornado IDS (interdictor/strike) fighter-bomber, the Tornado ECR (electronic combat/reconnaissance) SEAD aircraft and the Tornado ADV (air defence variant) interceptor aircraft. It first flew…

  • First Free Flight of the Space Shuttle Enterprise (1977)

    The final phase of flight testing involved free flights. These saw Enterprise mated to the SCA and carried to a launch altitude, before being released to glide to a landing on the runways at Edwards AFB. The intention of these flights was to test the flight characteristics of the orbiter itself, on a typical…

  • STS-85 Launch of Shuttle Discovery (1997)

    STS-85 was the 23rd flight of Space Shuttle Discovery that performed multiple space science packages. It was launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on 7 August 1997. The main STS-85 payloads included the satellite known as Cryogenic Infrared Spectrometers and Telescopes for the Atmosphere-Shuttle Pallet Satellite-2 CRISTA-SPAS-02. During the flight, Davis used Discovery’s robot…

  • Firestone Tyres are Founded (1868)

    Firestone Tire and Rubber Company is an American tire company founded by Harvey S. Firestone (1868–1938) in 1900 initially to supply solid rubber side-wire tires for fire apparatus, and later, pneumatic tires for wagons, carriages, and other forms of wheeled transportation common in the era. Firestone soon saw the huge potential for marketing tires…

  • Happy Birthday Mikko Hirvonen (1980)

    Mikko Hirvonen (born 31 July 1980) is a Finnish former rally driver, and a current Rally-Raid driver, who drove in the World Rally Championship. He placed third in the drivers’ championship and helped Ford to the manufacturers’ title in both 2006 and 2007. In 2008, 2009, 2011 and 2012 he finished runner-up to Sébastien…

  • Happy Birthday Stig Blomquist (1946)

    Stig Blomqvist (born 29 July 1946) is a retired Swedish rally driver. He made his international breakthrough in 1971. Driving an Audi Quattro for the Audi factory team, Blomqvist won the World Rally Championship drivers’ title in 1984 and finished runner-up in 1985. He won his home event, the Swedish Rally, seven times. Outside…

  • Swiss TV Goes on the Air (1953)

    Schweizer Fernsehen (SF; “Swiss Television”) was the German-language division of SRG SSR, in charge of production and distribution of television programmes in Switzerland for German-speaking Switzerland. It had its head office in Zürich. Its most viewed programme was Tagesschau (news), daily at 7:30 pm. It was formerly called SF DRS (Schweizer Fernsehen der deutschen…

  • Happy Birthday Vin Diesel (1967)

    Mark Sinclair (born July 18, 1967), known professionally as Vin Diesel, is an American actor and film producer. One of the world’s highest-grossing actors, he is best known for portraying Dominic “Dom” Toretto in the Fast & Furious franchise. Born in California, Diesel attended Hunter College in New York City, where studies in creative…

  • Happy Birthday Linda Park (1978)

    Linda Park (born July 9, 1978) is a South Korean-born American actress. She is best known for playing communications officer Hoshi Sato in the science-fiction series Star Trek: Enterprise. Also in 2001, less than a year after graduation, she was cast as Hoshi Sato in Star Trek: Enterprise, the sixth series of the Star…

  • Happy Birthday Richard Lee Petty (1937)

    Richard Lee Petty (born July 2, 1937), nicknamed “the King”, is an American former stock car racing driver who competed from 1958 to 1992 in the former NASCAR Grand National and Winston Cup Series (now called the NASCAR Cup Series), most notably driving the No. 43 Plymouth/Pontiac for Petty Enterprises. He is one of…

  • Happy Birthday Dominic Keating (1961)

    Dominic Keating (né Power; born 1 July 1961) is a British television, film and theatre actor best known for his portrayals of Tony in the Channel 4 sitcom Desmond’s and Lieutenant Malcolm Reed on Star Trek: Enterprise. After moving to the United States, he received the role of the demonic warrior Mallos on the…

  • STS-57 Shuttle Endeavour is Launched (1993)

    STS-57 was a NASA Space Shuttle-Spacelab mission of Space Shuttle Endeavour that launched June 21, 1993, from Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The mission was launched on the summer solstice. During the ten-day flight, the astronauts successfully conducted scores of biomedical and materials sciences experiments inside the pressurized SPACEHAB module. Two astronauts participated in a…

  • Porsche 911 RSR #92 “Pink Pig” wins 24h Le Mans GTE-Pro (2018)

    On 17th of June 2018 in the factory-run Porsche 911 RSR #92, Kévin Estre (France), Michael Christensen (Denmark) and Laurens Vanthoor (Belgium) crossed the finish line first in the GTE-Pro. Porsche celebrated their class win number 106 und 107 at Le Mans in its anniversary year “70 Years Porsche Sports Cars”. Porsche was absolutely…