The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is getting closer and closer to being released. It is set to be released to theaters on April 1, 2026. The movie is primarily based on the Super Mario Galaxy games, but will also feature many characters, places, and events that occur in other popular Mario games. For example, the trailer features the sand kingdom, and a t-rex. These two are directly related to the Super Mario Odyssey game. Furthermore, the trailer features a scene inside a big casino where Wart and Birdo can be seen. These two characters both debuted in Super Mario Bros. 2. Another big addition to the second movie is the inclusion of Mario’s dinosaur sidekick, Yoshi. Yoshi has been a big part of many Mario games since the release of Super Mario World back in 1990 for Japan and 1991 internationally. Finally, Rosalina (a princess from space) will also be included in the second movie. Rosalina was first introduced in the first Super Mario Galaxy game, and would depend on Mario defeating Bowser to preserve the peace of the entire galaxy. Overall, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie will be releasing soon, and will include content primarily from Super Mario Galaxy while also referencing many other Mario games throughout the movie. Information Source: Picture Source:

“Pokémon Pokopia” finally came out on Thursday, March 5. The game is starting to get its official ratings from popular sites, like Metacritic. The results so far are absolutely shocking. According to Metacritic, the game is rated to have a 88-89 metascore. Many other sites are rating it as being an eight out of ten or higher. Now, why would this be shocking for a game to be rated highly. The answer is because “Pokémon Pokopia” has become the highest rated Pokémon game in Metacritic history, and it’s not even a main line game. “Pokémon Pokopia” is simply a life simulation game that focuses on a ditto (a type of Pokémon) living peacefully on an island with no battling or intense features that all Pokémon games generally have. Furthermore, the game has also become tied for the highest rated game (in general) of the year so far. In all, “Pokémon Pokopia” is breaking records for Pokémon by becoming the highest rated game in the franchise to ever exist. Information Source:

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In 1908, The U.S Army Signal Corps was in its first ever need for an observation and training aircraft. Their requirements at the time were extraordinarily basic, but in 1908, the Wright Brothers hadn’t even made their first aircraft with a fuselage, as that wouldn’t come until 1912 in the form of the Wright Model F. The Wright Company held the patent for the “flying machine” since 1906, and had several nasty lawsuits with other aircraft designers that were right behind the brothers the entire time. While Orville and Wilbur both hated the business side of the newly founded aircraft industry, they were both stern on achieving a patent for the airplane, officially marking it as theirs. This is ultimately the reason why aeronautical development in the United States was so slow compared to the rapid development with the Germans, French, and British, and is what led the United States into completely abandoning domestic designers altogether at the outbreak of World War I. Everyone is aware of the Wright Brother’s first flight at Kitty Hawk on December 17th, 1903, but the story of Orville and Wilbur stops there in the minds of the American public, and there is so much more to the Wright family than one single flight. When the Signal Corps came calling for an airplane, the Wright Company was the superior option at the time, as Glenn Curtiss was far behind and further backed up by the Wright Brother’s patenting lawsuits. The result was the Wright Military Flyer, a modified Wright Model A. The original Model A Flyer was truly not much different than the famous Wright Flyer III, the first “practical” airplane that could sustain itself in flight indefinitely as long as there was no mechanical issue. The major differences between the Model A and the Flyer III was in the control surfaces, and the engine. Until the Model A, the Wright Vertical-Four had only produced a maximum of 20HP, and it was actually horizontal before it was vertical. The Wrights had managed to squeeze out 35HP by increasing the displacement of the cylinders and “beefing-up” the components to make sure it could handle the increase in power, and to help with oil starvation issues, the engine sat vertical as if it were in a car. The control surfaces were the largest change by far, and made the Model A much easier to fly, introducing two sticks for controlling pitch and roll, while using a familiar foot pedal system to control the rudder (as we now know it today). Until this period, the Flyer III had to be controlled using a complex three lever system, and it was only practical for the Wrights themselves. Now in 1908, the Wright’s most complex problem was figuring out how to conventionally meet the Army’s requirements of making a faster, more stable, and much easier to fly aircraft (which could also seat two people, the same as the Model A). After Orville’s tragic crash of a prototype Model A which resulted in the first ever aviation death of an Army Lieutenant, Orville knew that the Wright’s contract was on the line. The requirement was 40MPH, and a range of 125 miles in any conditions–the Model A simply couldn’t match it. The new Military Flyer was a Model A that had the wingspan shortened by 2 feet for less drag, and the propellers were lengthened to generate more thrust to compensate for the lessening of lift. The gear ratio of the propellers were also changed, and spun even faster–the final icing on the cake was the engine, salvaged from the wreck of the Model A incident. Orville believed that the engine had been “broken-in” after the journey, and his prediction was right, the engine potentially made 40HP although it was never verified. On July 27th 1909, the Army requested a trial and had one scheduled for that specific day. After Orville knew that the speed requirement had likely been met, he made sure that a terrible accident couldn’t happen again. Finally, the undercarriage was changed to incorporate a higher skid, and the wire bracing of the airframe had been strengthened with rubber bushings to absorb any damaging wing flex. With the Flyer ready to go, Lt Frank P. Lahm and Orville Wright took to the skies and met the requirements perfectly, setting a record flight of 1 hour, 12 minutes, and 40 seconds, while covering 40 miles in the process (without consuming too much fuel). On July 30th, Orville made the speed trip with Foulois (as pictured), and beat the required speed of 40MPH with an average of 42.5 and a maximum of 47.4. The Army Signal Corps purchased the Military Flyer for $30,000 in 1909, equivalent to $1,072,259.34 today. Military Flyer No.1 would remain in Army service as the first Army aircraft used for flight instruction until May 4, 1911, when it would be donated to the Smithsonian Institution for the conservation of history. Although never serving any kind of combat role, the Military Flyer taught the United States’s first ever pilots, and proved to the armed forces that aircraft would eventually be one of the greatest military inventions in history. At the outbreak of WWI, they were right.

On September 1st 1939, a date that now lives as the start of one of the worst wars in human history, Nazi Germany invaded and overwhelmed the Polish armed forces on every front. The “Lightning War”, known as Blitzkrieg, was a stark contrast to the slow and desolate nature of World War I. At the start of the war in 1939, the German military had amassed an impressive amount of military power, particularly in the German Luftwaffe. Germany without question had the most advanced aircraft at the start of the war, and arguably at the end of it–the Messerschmitt BF-109, a well recognized name, was in its very infancy at the start of the war in September. Daimler-Benz (yes, Mercedes Benz) had not yet designed a fast method of producing the DB-601 Inverted V12 for the German Luftwaffe, and so initial variants of the BF-109 were much slower, as the BF-109 “Dora” variant only had a Jumo engine with a significantly more draggy nose. The Polish PZL P.11 was the only line of defense in the sky from the Germans, other than the older variant the P.7. Designed at the beginning of the 1930s, the P.11 was arguably the most advanced aircraft of the time, better than anything the Germans or the Soviets had. In Britain, the days of the Spitfire and Hurricane were still far away in 1931, and the United States was still far behind, focusing on agile biplanes that were still heavy and slow. The P.11 however was all-metal construction, incredibly lightweight, and used a high-wing monoplane that featured one of the most unique wing designs of the era, the Gull Wing. Commonly used on gliders today for its incredibly low drag, the gullwing of the P.11 also provided fantastic visibility for the pilot, placing the only wing above his head, yet still having an incredible view frontally. Because of the P.11’s wing, the aircraft essentially flew like a powered glider–it refused to stall, and its maneuverability was similar if not better than the fighters of World War I. The primary issue was time itself–at the outbreak of the war, this high-wing monoplane with only 600HP with most of its engines was incredibly outdated, and it only possessed two 7.62 machine guns, 500 rounds each. The German BF-109E-3, which did feature the DB-601, produced nearly double the amount of power, and the design of the aircraft overall was better. It had two machine guns of the similar caliber, but also possessed two 20mm cannons which could eliminate such a light fighter with only a single hit. Nonetheless, on the opening day of the war, the P.11 shot down 25 German bombers, only suffering 10 losses. Although the P.11 had shot down only bombers, the Polish Air Force had much greater victory than the rest of the nation, and proved to be a thorn in Hitler’s side. The P.11 would serve until the fall of Poland and had many more victories, becoming one of the most effective yet outdated fighters of the war, continuing to serve after Poland’s fall in Romania.

The Dodge 30-35 is the first car produced by Dodge on November 14, 1914, and manufactured in Detroit, Michigan. It was a mid-size car. This car had an L-head inline-four engine of 3.5 L inch displacement, which had a power output of 26kW. The rear wheels were driven by a leather cone clutch and a three-speed gearbox with middle gear. The rear wheels were braked mechanically. In its short time, it only had one body offered: a four-door tourer(the driver door couldn’t open). A tourer has a roof, but is generally “open.” From January 1915, a two-seat roadster was also available. A roadster has no roof. From that point on, electric lighting was standard equipment. The series was replaced in July 1916 by the Model 30. There was only 116,400 copies of the Dodge 30-35 made. Of those, 150 were made by the United States Army and others. Image and information source: 

The Volkswagen Beetle is a small family car produced by German company Volkswagen from 1938 to 2003. It was conceived in the early 1930s. The leader of Nazi Germany, Adolf Hitler, decided a need for a small family car to serve the Reichsautobahn, Germany’s new road network then. Ferdinand Porsche, a German engineer, and his design team began developing the car in the early 1930s. However, the main design was attributed to Bela Barenyi in 1925, predating Porsche’s claim by almost ten years. That resulted in the creation of the Volkswagen Type 1, and the introduction of the Volkswagen brand. The company initially slated production for the late ‘30s, but World War Two made the production delayed until the war had ended. All components were designed for a quick and inexpensive part exchange. Image and information source: