Abandoned Underground Bases, Decades-Long Mysteries And Potential Russian Sabotage In This Week's Beyond Cars Roundup

Back in 1959, the Army Corp of Engineers carved its own Echo Base into the Greenland ice as a testbed for launching nuclear missiles from Arctic locations. The base was abandoned in 1967, but a new scan from NASA shows it’s still sitting 100 feet below the ice — along with all its radioactive waste. - Amber DaSilva Read More

In 1971, a man going by the name Dan Cooper hijacked a plane, took $200,000 and two parachutes, and vanished into the night sky somewhere over the state of Washington never to be seen or heard from again. Armchair investigators have long theorized where he might have gone, and the FBI thinks he may have never landed from his jump, but new evidence suggests he may have gotten away with it all — only to be caught doing the same thing over again just five months later. - Amber DaSilva Read More

Every plane crash is subject to intense scrutiny, but a DHL cargo plane crash in Lithuania on Monday morning has drawn the attention of Europe’s intelligence agencies. The crash killed one crew member and injured three others. The crash is still under investigation but Lithuanian officials haven’t ruled out terrorism considering the uncovered covert Russian effort to put incendiary bombs on DHL planes. - Ryan Erik King Read More

Ford is synonymous with the automobile because the Model T revolutionized car travel in the United States. It’s difficult to believe that the Ford Trimotor plane did the same in commercial aviation. This is an understandable oversight, considering it’s the only plane ever designed and produced by Ford’s short-lived aviation division before burning $10.3 million. - Ryan Erik King Read More

When Vikings landed on Lindisfarne’s shores in 793, slaughtering the local English populace and pillaging the monastery of valuable relics beyond their cultural comprehension, they ushered in a new age of raiding and trading across Europe. More than 1000 years later, NASA’s Viking 1 lander might have done almost the same when it touched down on the Martian surface in 1976, based on new commentary published in the scientific journal Nature. - Ryan Erik King Read More

The state of California is known for its reliance on the automobile and its less-than-comprehensive public transportation sector, but a massive jump in ridership of an improved rail line could be a sign that reputation may change. Ridership of the Caltrain service is way up, and it’s all thanks to a transition away from old-fashioned diesel trains that have been upgraded to new electric trains in August of this year. - Logan Carter Read More

NASA’s return to the moon has been plagued by delays and spiraling costs, which means it could now fall to privateer firms like SpaceX to take us back to the surface of the moon. If the Elon Musk-backed company is given NASA’s contract to fly to the moon, it could end up carrying a new electric vehicle into orbit, and it won’t be one assembled by Tesla. - Owen Bellwood Read More

We’ve all had a problem roommate at some point in our lives, but probably not in low Earth orbit. Roscosmos received an unmanned Progress resupply spacecraft on the International Space Station last Saturday. When cosmonauts cracked open the hatch, everyone smelled an unexplained odor and there were droplets in the air. The incident launched yet another inquiry into something going wrong on the Russian side of the ISS. - Ryan Erik King Read More

The nights are drawing in, the weather is getting colder and the big coats are being dug out the attic. This means that instead of spending your nights drinking on trendy terraces, working away on your car in the driveway or kicking a ball around with friends, you’re probably wrapped up inside drinking a hot cocoa, right? - Owen Bellwood Read More

The record for the fastest transatlantic crossing typically conjures images of bygone ocean liners with opulent amenities and decadent meals featuring roast squab and foie gras. Not stuffed crust pies from Pizza Hut. During the 1990s, high-speed catamaran ferries upended the idea of what ships could be the pinnacle of maritime travel. However, historians and enthusiasts fought tooth and nail to protect the ocean liner’s legacy. - Ryan Erik King Read More