Top 5 Landmarks of 2025

Since 1971, ASME has designated 284 historic Mechanical Engineering Landmarks, which are existing artifacts or systems representing a significant mechanical engineering technology. In fact, the most recent landmark was formally presented for the Duesenberg Four-Wheel Hydraulic Brakes for Automobile Vehicles in March 2025 (read on for more about that).

Given the significance of these landmarks for engineering, the staff at Mechanical Engineering magazine began a monthly profile series in 2024. Some of these first stories included the Evinrude Outboard Motor, Saugus Ironworks, Disneyland Monorail, and Radio City Music Hall’s Hydraulically Actuated Stage, and we continued the series on into 2025.

Here are the top five most-read landmark profiles of the year.
 

The Spruce Goose Is a Wooden Wonder

The H-4 Hercules, an obsession of Howard Hughes, is still the biggest wooden boat to go airborne after more than 75 years. Hughes’s biggest, most audacious, most life-consuming, most fought-for, and most lasting record was for the construction and—spoiler alert—brief flight of this massive seaplane, née the HK-1 and known to the world as the Spruce Goose. The aircraft was, and is, 284,000 pounds, eight stories tall from wheelbase to tail tip, and has a football field of a wingspan—with the wingtips extending well into the endzones. But size is just the most obvious innovation of the most jumbo of jumbo planes. In designing, constructing, and experimenting with it, Hughes and his engineers set many firsts before its flight, with its flight, and, also, after its flight.
 
 

A One-Off Conjunction of Events Toppled the Arecibo Telescope 

Not many major scientific installations claim a starring role in a major Hollywood movie—but the Arecibo Telescope in Puerto Rico holds the distinction of having been in multiple blockbusters, from “Contact” to “Goldeneye” and “Species,” among others, which gave it a little extra fame beyond the realm of science. This ASME Mechanical Engineering Landmark was the largest radio telescope in the world for nearly 50 years. Its location 19 kilometers south of the city of Arecibo had purpose, but that remoteness would prove to be something of a hindrance following the telescope’s unexpected collapse in 2020.
 
 

The Brakes That Got America Moving 

In the early 20^th century, driving a car was something of a physical test. The Duesenberg hydraulic braking system opened the roads to everyone. While the Big Three automakers—General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler—opened up car ownership to the masses, companies based outside of Detroit were competing for a slice of the high-end market and had to make their marks through luxury, craftsmanship, or high technology. One company that was renowned for both its luxury and technology was Duesenberg. Among those innovations was four-wheel hydraulic brakes, which were included as a standard in its Model A, known originally as the Duesenberg Straight Eight. 
 
 

A Landmark Rocket Sent Humanity to the Moon 

Photo: NASA

July 2025 marked 56 years since the Apollo 11 moon landing. That historic feat was made possible by the Saturn V rocket, designed and engineered at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. At the time, this heavy lift vehicle was the tallest, heaviest, and most powerful rocket ever built. It moved people, ships, and even a space station beyond Earth’s atmosphere. In fact, it still holds the record for the largest payload delivered to low Earth orbit at 141 metric tons, which included the Apollo command and lunar modules, plus enough fuel to travel to and from the moon.  
 

Pumping It Up at Rocky River 

The flow of water has been doing our work for a few thousand years, hulling grain, crushing ore, and powering other tasks. The work that hydropower could help with expanded dramatically when, in the late 19^th century, turbines began to be used to turn the force of falling water into electricity. But the average municipality with a river needed some way of storing the river’s power when the flow was plentiful for the times when it was not. Damming a short tributary of the Housatonic—or the Rocky River—created a giant reservoir from which to draw extra flow and power as needed. First built in 1926, Rocky River’s pumped storage facility remains Connecticut’s largest battery.