WS-125: The Atomic-Powered Bomber

During the height of the Cold War, the US Air Force sought to produce the ultimate doomsday weapon—a bomber that could not only deliver atomic weapons, but which would use nuclear-powered engines.

NB-36 test bed in flight

Ghost Ship: The “Lyubov Orlova”

Once a luxury cruise ship in service with the Soviet Union, the Lyubov Orlova ended her days as a derelict floating, completely empty, in the North Atlantic Ocean.

The empty ship “Lyubov Orlova”

The Soviet Serial Killer

For some reason, “serial killers” seem to be mostly an American phenomenon. But there have also been serial killers in other countries, and one of the most brutal was in the Soviet Union in the midst of the Cold War.

Andrei Chikatilo’s police mug shot

Written in Bone: The Denisovans

The Denisovans, one of our early human relatives, are known only from a finger bone, two teeth, and the ghostly remnants of their DNA inside our own genome.

 

Skull of Homo heidelbergensis

Icons of Aviation History: Junkers Ju-87 Stuka

The Stuka dive bomber is a familiar icon of the Nazi Luftwaffe. But its actual lifetime as an effective combat airplane was limited because of its deficiencies in design.

Ju-87 Stuka at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry