Timeline of transportation technology

Timeline of transportation technology

• 3500 BC - Wheeled carts are invented
• 3500 BC - River boats are invented
• 2000 BC - Horses are tamed and used for transport
• 770 - Iron horseshoes come into common use
• 1492 - Leonardo da Vinci describes a flying machine
• 1662 - Blaise Pascal invents a horse-drawn public bus which has a regular route, schedule, and fare system
• 1740 - Jacques de Vaucanson demonstrates his clockwork powered carriage
• 1783 - Joseph Montgolfier and Étienne Montgolfier launch the first hot air balloons
• 1801 - Richard Trevithick builds a prototype steam powered railroad locomotive
• 1807 - Isaac de Rivas makes a hydrogen gas powered vehicle
• 1814 - George Stephenson builds the first practical steam powered railroad locomotive
• 1853 - Sir George Cayley builds and demonstrates the first heavier-than-air aircraft (a glider)
• 1862 - Jean Lenoir makes a gasoline-engine automobile
• 1868 - George Westinghouse invents the compressed air locomotive brake
• 1900 - Ferdinand von Zeppelin builds the first successful dirigible
• 1903 - Orville Wright and Wilbur Wright fly the first motor-driven airplane
• 1908 - Henry Ford develops the assembly line method of automobile manufacturing
• 1942 - V2 rocket covers a distance of 200 km
• 1947 - First supersonic flight
• 1957 - Sputnik 1, the first man-made satellite to be launched into orbit
• 1961 - Vostok 1, the first manned space mission, made 2 orbits around the earth.
• 1969 - First manned mission to the Moon
• 1981 - First flight of the space shuttle

adapted from list originally compiled by Niel Brandt