› added 11 years ago

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TIL the worlds largest internal combustion engine is the size of a large house. It’s a massive 100,000+ hp 14 cylinder 2,300+ ton engine for transport ships.

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5Yj4R TIL that the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Centre is home to the four largest doors (each bay door is 139 metres high) and largest American flag (63.7 metres by 33.5 metres) in the world; the doors take 45 minutes to open.
69EVJ TIL one of the convict ships to Australia in the early 1800s was just called "Dick"
6ADY TIL that at it’s height the First Persian Empire contained about 44% of the world’s population (about 50 million people), making it the largest empire in history by population percentage
NXVlJ TIL about Merkury Vagin, an 18th century Russian Arctic explorer who was murdered by members of his own expedition after discovering the New Siberian Islands.
grl48 TIL The F-104 Starfighter jet had such an abysmal safety record it was called the Widowmaker in West Germany. 292 of 916 units were lost to accidents there. Other countries reported similar rates