British scientists solve cliffhanger at end of 'The Italian Job'

Some of the Britain's brightest minds have resolved one of the country's biggest cinematic cliffhangers: How the robbers could have got away with the gold at the end of "The Italian Job."

The 1969 heist film, Starring Michael Caine, ends with the robbers' gold-laden bus teetering over the edge of an Alpine road, with their loot - and their lives - in doubt.

The film was remade in 2003, Mark Wahlberg as Caine, and also featured Charlize Theron, Donald Sutherland, Jason Statham, Seth Green, Mos Def and Edward Norton.

On Friday the Royal Society of Chemistry offered fans a little closure, announcing the winner of a competition to find a scientific solution to their predicament.

"Like many people, I watched the film from when I was a young boy," said John Godwin, the winner. "It's one of those classic British films, with great actors - Michael Caine, Noel Coward, Benny Hill - and a great car chase, and at the end of the day they've done all the hard work and it seemed a waste to leave them hanging on that mountainside."

"The Italian Job" follows Charlie Croker, played by Caine, as he assembles a crack team of likable crooks to pull off a complex plan to steal a stash of gold in the Italian city of Turin. The ensuing car chase - which cuts across the rooftop test track of Fiat's Lingotto building and down the steps of Turin's Gran Madre di Dio church - ranks among the most gripping in movie history.

But things end badly when the gang's getaway bus slides halfway off a mountain road on its way to Switzerland. The bus seesaws precariously, with the men gathered at the front and the gold weighing down the back, which is hanging over the cliff. A wrong move could send the bus tumbling into the chasm below, but Croker says: "Hang on a minute lads - I've got a great idea." Then the credits roll.

Royal Society of Chemistry Chief Executive Richard Pike said the competition to find an ending to the movie that preserves both the gold and the men was aimed at "promoting science and chemistry to a wider audience in an entertaining way," adding that some 2,000 people had tried their hand at extricating Croker's gang. Some of the more novel solutions including burning the asphalt to glue the bus to the road or dissolving the gold with acid, he said.

Godwin said his fix took him an afternoon to work out:

-Break the windows at the back to reduce weight.

-Break two windows at the front, hold one gang member upside down out of the window to deflate the front tires and stabilize the vehicle.

-Drain the rear fuel tank through an access panel at the bottom of the bus.

-Gang members leave one by one from the front, collecting stones to replace their weight.

-Keep adding stones until someone can safely go to the rear to retrieve the gold.

Godwin said gathering the data he needed for his equations, like the fuel efficiency of a 1964 Bedford VAL14, the weight of a window or the price of gold in 1968 - needed to establish the weight of the haul - was fairly easy. "The Internet's a great place," he said.

He isn't the first to suggest a solution.

Caine himself proposed a much simpler idea in a British Broadcasting Corp. documentary six years ago - albeit one that leaves the hapless gang short of their precious haul.

"The next thing that happens is you turn the engine on," Caine said. "You all sit exactly where you are till all the petrol has run out, which changes the equilibrium. We all jump out and the gold goes over the cliff."

What do you think? do you have a theory on how the robbers got away?

Classic Radio Flyer wagon gets a new look

Maybe you had one when you were a kid, or you knew someone who did.

It's the iconic little red wagon with the Radio Flyer logo.

If so, you might not recognize the newest product dreamed up by the brain trust at Radio Flyer's Chicago, Illinois, headquarters.

This wagon, called the Cloud 9, is equipped with enough high-tech bells and whistles to make the family minivan jealous.

"We approached this product much like an automotive company might with a concept car," said Mark Johnson, Radio Flyer's product development manager.

Outfitted with 5-point safety harnesses, padded seats, cup holders, foot brakes and fold-out storage containers, the sleek, curved Cloud 9 has every family covered for a ride through the park. But that's just for starters.

There's a digital handle that tracks temperature, time, distance and speed -- just in case energetic parents want to track their split times around the playground. And there's a slot for an MP3 player, complete with speakers, for some cruising tunes.

That's right: The little red wagon we all remember, know and love has gone 2.0.

"Music is such an important part of kids' and families' lives, we thought it would be great to have a speaker system built in the wagon," said Tom Schlegel, vice president of product development.

The Cloud 9 is still a prototype, but it wasn't developed on a whim. The company did extensive market research beforehand, then tested it out on the real experts at home.

"We sit down [and] observe how moms and kids are using our products," said Schlegel. "That's where our new ideas come from."

Radio Flyer's blend of cutting-edge design and old-fashioned products appears to be a successful recipe. In an economy where businesses and families alike are tightening their belts, the company is still going strong.

"Radio Flyer survived the Great Depression, and this year has been a difficult year for a lot of companies," Schlegel says, "But Radio Flyer is actually growing this year. We're actually looking for engineers and designers in our product development group to keep up with the growth of the company."

That's quite a testament for a company nearly 90 years old.

Theirs is an American success story that started when Italian immigrant Antonio Pasin started building wooden toy wagons in 1917. He had limited success but was encouraged enough to start the Liberty Coaster Company in 1923.

The company changed names seven years later, becoming Radio Steel & Manufacturing. The world was introduced that same year to the first steel wagon, called the Radio Flyer. Since then, Radio Flyer has become perhaps the world's most famous maker of wagons, tricycles and other toys.

The company's best-known product even inspired a 1992 movie, "Radio Flyer," about a boy who imagines converting his red wagon into a flying machine to help his little brother flee an abusive stepdad.

Whether you grew up on Rock-'em Sock-'em Robots or Xbox, the little red wagon has remained a mainstay of child's play. It's certainly evolved over the years, though -- the rusty metal has been replaced with plastic.

But the spirit of Radio Flyer, which conjures memories of a simpler time, remains intact. "One of the most important things about Radio Flyer products is that they really help [keep kids active outdoors]," Schlegel said. "So when we're designing our products, we're really looking at how can we get kids outside and playing, away from the video games and TV screens and computer screens."