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The Energia-Buran was the most expensive and ambitious Soviet space project in history. As the Soviet Union’s answer to the US Space Shuttle, the rival reusable launch system was designed to match any potential strategic advantage offered by the Space Shuttle. But the Soviets had a unique challenge on their hands.

Maybe it wasn't as bad of an idea as you might think. In 1956, Goodyear combined their expertise in building inflatable airships and rubber tires, to develop an inflatable airplane. A plane small and light enough to pack up inside the family station wagon, that could be fully inflated and ready for flight in just five minutes. Earlier attempts at building inflatable aircraft had failed because inflated rubber was a poor material choice for aircraft, resulting in planes that were too slow, wobbly and structurally unstable to be of practical use. But Goodyear’s newly developed material called Airmat promised increased rigidity when inflated, while still being lightweight and flexible to be packed up inside a small container With Airmat, Goodyear was convinced that they could develop an inflatable airplane that could help save lives.

In just a few short years, Japan’s Superconducting Maglev (SCMaglev) will become the world’s fastest train in operation. Traveling at near aircraft-like speeds of 503km per hour, the SCMaglev will eventually link Japan’s population centers of Tokyo and Osaka in just 67 Minutes. The SCMaglev will operate on the Chuo Shinkansen, a new 438km intercity route connecting Tokyo to Osaka. The line will run right through a mountain range, requiring the vast majority of the route to run in tunnels. However, the Chuo Shinkansen will be more direct than the current Shinkansen high-speed rail route. The first section is expected to open in 2027 with the remaining connection to Osaka completed a decade later in 2037 The SCMaglev will be the world’s first superconducting maglev to enter service. To levitate trains off their guideway, electromagnets are cooled to extreme temperatures in order to take advantage of a phenomenon called superconductivity. The electromagnets on board the train interact with two sets of coils embedded inside a guideway, one to propel the train and the other levitation and guidance. The low electrical resistance in superconducting magnets allows SCMaglevs to consume 30% less energy than other high-speed maglev trains, like Germany’s Transrapid. The technology behind SCMaglev is nearly 60 years in the making. But the Chuo Shinkansen is also one of the most expensive transport projects in history and an enormous bet on high-speed maglev, a technology that has yet to prove itself. Given the enormous costs and move away from proven high-speed rail technologies, some question whether building the world's fastest train really makes sense.

As an aircraft designer, physicist, astronomer, philosopher, painter and musician, Robert Bartini is often described as a genius ahead of his time. Throughout his life, he designed over 60 aircraft and made significant contributions to Soviet aviation. Although most of Bartini’s aircraft designs never left the drawing board, many of his aeronautical innovations were incorporated into production aircraft. In 1965, Bartini was given a rare opportunity to realize the full potential of one of his concepts. With the emergence of American Polaris missile submarines, the Soviet Union needed a new kind of aircraft to respond. Bartini proposed building the ultimate submarine hunter. Designated as the VVA-14, it would be a truly unique and innovative aircraft. With a catamaran-like fuselage it would be optimized to fly within the ground effect (like other ekranoplan of the era), giving it endurance needed to fly long-range missions. It would also have wings so that it could fly like a conventional airplane if needed. Bartini would equip the VVA-14 with both a conventional landing gear for runways and a unique inflatable pontoon system to give it amphibious capabilities. Ten lift jets would allow for vertical take-off and landings (VTOL) from any kind of surface, giving the aircraft the ability to operate from the even most harsh and remote regions of the Soviet Union. Development would stretch nearly a decade, but like Bartini himself, the VVA-14’s design would end up being a little too ahead of it's time.

Seventeen meters long, six meters wide, and weighing more than 34,000 kg, the Antarctic Snow Cruiser was unlike any exploration vehicle the world had ever seen. Designed to tackle the most difficult and inhospitable place on earth, five explorers would live, work and sleep aboard the machine in isolation while they ventured into uncharted regions of Antarctica. Equipped with enough food, fuel and supplies to last an entire year, the Snow Cruiser would carry the latest surveying instruments and tools. The enormous land cruiser would even carry a survey aircraft moored to its roof. By 1939 a global race was underway to claim portions of Antarctica. With the prospect of huge oil, coal and mineral reserves under the ice, Norway, Britain, France, Germany, Australia and New Zealand had all claimed large portions of the continent for themselves. Alarmed at the prospect of territorial claims, U.S. president Franklin Roosevelt established the U.S. Antarctic Service Expedition. It would be the first U.S. government sponsored expedition in decades, and would set sail for Antarctica in the fall of 1939. The Antarctic Snow Cruiser would have a special role to play. Its main objective would be to reach the South Pole (only two prior expeditions had ever set foot on the South Pole prior to 1939). During its months-long trek, the Snow Cruiser and it’s aircraft would make surveys along its course, and in just a few months the Americans were expecting to explore more of Antarctica than all previous expeditions combined. The ambitious effort would help the Americans establish their own territorial claim on the continent. But in the race to leave for Antarctica by the fall of 1939, the Snow Cruiser would have to be constructed in just 11 weeks, an incredibly short amount of time for such an ambitious, first of its kind machine. Soon, it would become abundantly clear that the Cruiser had been over-designed and under-tested, with extreme optimism seemingly guiding it’s design.

In the late 1950s, Soviet intelligence learned that the Americans were developing a new state-of the art supersonic bomber that could render the entire Soviet Air Force and air defense system virtually obsolete. The nuclear-armed North American XB-70 Valkyrie would fly more than three times the speed of sound and at an altitude of 75,000 feet. Only a handful of the XB-70’s would be needed to overwhelm any target. The Soviets would have just a few short years to respond to the threat by designing a new interceptor that could match the incredible performance of America’s XB-70 aircraft. But to guard the enormous air space of the Soviet Union, the interceptor would have to be quickly engineered and mass produced by the hundreds. The result would be the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25, an interceptor engineered to do one thing; climb, catch and bring down the American bomber. But the aircraft would end up as one of the most misunderstood jets of the Cold War.