Page 21 - All About History - Issue 16-14

Transport

A STEAMY The RMS Titanic is one of the most The birth of
the railway
widely known steamships
JOURNEY ENGLAND 15 SEPTEMBER 1830
UNITED STATES 24 MAY 1819 The Liverpool and Manchester Railway
was a revolutionary railway line that
When the SS Savannah served as the template for all subsequent
completed its journey from railways. It was the very first twin-track
passenger railway and introduced the
Savannah, Georgia to Liverpool,
idea of timetabled and ticketed trains. Up
England it went down in history until its creation, animal traction had been
as the first ship to cross the used on all other public transportation
Atlantic Ocean with the help but the railway used steam locomotives to
haul trains full of people, goods and raw
of steam power. However, the
materials between the two towns. Although
Savannah was a sailing ship ultimately regarded as an innovation in rail
that had been converted to travel, its opening day was marred when a
steam power and much of the Member of Parliament, William Huskisson,
legendary journey was sailed was run over by a train.
using wind power. The SS A depiction of the opening of the Liverpool
Royal William, launched in 1831, and Manchester Railway
was the first pure ocean-going
steamship and completed the
journey almost entirely under
steam power. Another claimant
is the Dutch Curaçao, a wooden
ship that sailed across the
Atlantic in 1827.

Speeding Testing times O Earhart is lost Path to Paris Make way for
forward Compulsory Amelia Earhart, The Channel Tunnel the Segway
The first purpose- testing is the first female is opened. It links Dean Kamen,
built motorsport introduced for to fly solo across Folkestone, Kent in an American Segways became
venue, Brooklands all new drivers the Atlantic Britain with Coquelles, entrepreneur, a sensation in the
in Surrey, opens. in the United Ocean, goes Pas-de-Calais in France invents a 2000s
It is also one of Kingdom. missing during via rail tunnel beneath the self-balancing
Britain’s very Previously only an attempt to English Channel. It boasts two-wheeled
first airfields. disabled drivers fly around the the longest undersea personal vehicle
1907 were required globe. portion of any tunnel in known as the
to pass. Aviation pioneer 2 July 1937 the world. Segway.
1934 Amelia Earhart 6 May 1994 2001

1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2014

O Getting it Wright O Ford’s empire is O The first flight of the O A quiet flight O The final frontier
Two American built DC-3 Captain Charles The success of
brothers, Orville Manufacturing The fixed-wing ‘Chuck’ Yeager the test flight of
and Wilbur Wright, pioneer Henry propeller aircraft DC-3 becomes the SpaceShipOne, the
take to the skies Ford introduces his makes its first flight. fastest man alive first privately funded
and make aviation affordable Model It will come to be a when his flight in spaceflight, sparks
history as they fly T car, bringing massive influence on the Bell X-1 breaks plans for commercial
the first motor- automobiles to WWII and the entire Captain Yeager with the sound barrier. SpaceShipOne was the space flight.
driven aircraft. the masses. airline industry. the Bell X-1 Glamorous 14 October 1947 first privately funded 21 June 2004
17 December 1903 1 October 1908 17 December 1935 Glennis vehicle in space

To infinity and beyond! The bullet train Flight of the
USA/USSR 4 OCTOBER 1957 speeds off Concorde
When the Soviet Union launched Sputnik JAPAN 1 OCTOBER 1964 ENGLAND 21 JANUARY 1976
1, the first man-made satellite, into orbit it Commonly known as ‘the bullet Aviation icon Concorde made
catapulted the USSR and USA into the Space train’, the Tōkaidō Shinkansen the world’s first commercial
Race. This Cold War rivalry helped to push is a high-speed rail line passenger-carrying
the boundaries of transport into realms between Tokyo and Shin-Ōsaka. supersonic flight in January
previously unfathomable. On 12 April 1961, Completed in 1964, it remains 1976. Concorde pushed the
the Soviets made transportation history the fastest rail route in the boundaries of commercial
by putting the first man in space. The two world, shortening the journey flight with an emphasis on
countries constantly challenged each other from almost seven hours to super-fast flight, being able
by building bigger and more impressive two hours and 25 minutes. to fly routes in less than half
spacecrafts, and the US Apollo 8 became This drastically changed the the average time. Although
the first to carry humans beyond Earth’s style of business and life and the aircraft were retired in
gravity in 1968. Finally, on 20 July 1969, a immediate demand for similar 2003, Concorde’s pioneering
new benchmark was set as Neil Armstrong Apollo 11 spent 21 hours, 38 minutes and 21 services led to rapid expansion spirit has earned it a place in
became the first man to walk on the Moon. seconds on the Moon of the network. In total 20 Concorde aviation history.
aircraft were built © Alamy; Thinkstock

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