EVOLUTION OF TRANSPORT
The history of transport evolved
with the development of human culture. Long distance walking tracks developed
as trade routes in paleolithic times. For most of human history the only forms
of transport apart from walking were using domesticated animals or transport in
small boats
Road
transport
Main
article: History of road transport
The first
earth tracks were created by humans carrying goods and often followed game
trails. Tracks would be naturally created at points of high traffic density. As
animals were domesticated, horses, oxen and donkeys became an element in
track-creation. With the growth of trade, tracks were often flattened or
widened to accommodate animal traffic. Later, the travois, a frame used to drag
loads, was developed. Animal-drawn wheeled vehicles probably developed in Sumer
in the Ancient Near East in the 4th or 5th millennium BC and spread to Europe
and India in the 4th millennium BC and China in about 1200 BC. The Romans had a
significant need for good roads to extend and maintain their empire and
developed Roman roads.
In the
Industrial Revolution, John Loudon McAdam (1756–1836) designed the first modern
highways, using inexpensive paving material of soil and stone aggregate
(macadam), and he embanked roads a few feet higher than the surrounding terrain
to cause water to drain away from the surface. With the development of motor
transport there was an increased need for hard-topped roads to reduce
washaways, bogging and dust on both urban and rural roads, originally using
cobblestones and wooden paving in major western cities and in the early 20th
century tar-bound macadam (tarmac) and concrete paving were extended into the
countryside.
The modern
history of road transport also involves the development of new vehicles such as
new models of horse-drawn vehicles, bicycles, motor cars, motor trucks and
electric vehicles.
Maritime
transport
Main
article: Maritime history
In the
stone ages primitive boats developed to permit navigation of rivers and for
fishing in rivers and off the coast. It has been argued that boats suitable for
a significant sea crossing were necessary for people to reach Australia an
estimated 40,000-45,000 years ago. With the development of civilization, bigger
vessels were developed both for trade and war. In the Mediterranean, galleys
were developed about 3000 BC. Galleys were eventually rendered obsolete by
ocean-going sailing ships, such as the Arabic caravel in the 13th century, the
Chinese treasure ship in the early 15th century, and the Mediterranean
man-of-war in the late 15th century. In the Industrial Revolution, the first
steamboats and later diesel-powered ships were developed. Eventually submarines
were developed mainly for military purposes.
Meanwhile
specialised craft were developed for river and canal transport. Canals were
developed in Mesopotamia c. 4000 BC. The Indus Valley Civilization in Pakistan
and North India (from c. 2600 BC) had the first canal irrigation system in the
world.[1] The longest canal of ancient times was the Grand Canal of China. It
is 1,794 kilometers (1,115 mi) long and was built to carry the Emperor Yang
Guang between Beijing and Hangzhou. The project began in 605, although the oldest
sections of the canal may have existed since c. 486 BC. Canals were developed
in the Middle Ages in Europe in Venice and the Netherlands. Pierre-Paul Riquet
began to organise the construction of the 240 km-long Canal du Midi in France
in 1665 and it was opened in 1681. In the Industrial Revolution, inland canals
were built in History of the British canal system England and later the United
States before the development of railways. Specialised craft were also
developed for fishing and later whaling.
Maritime
history also deals with the development of navigation, oceanography,
cartography and hydrography.
Rail
transport
Main
article: History of rail transport
The history
of rail transportation dates back nearly 500 years, and includes systems with
man or horse power and rails of wood (or occasionally stone). This was usually
for moving coal from the mine down to a river, from where it could continue by
boat, with a flanged wheel running on a rail. The use of cast iron plates as
rails began in the 1760s, and was followed by systems (plateways) where the
flange was part of the rail. However, with the introduction of rolled wrought
iron rails, these became obsolete.
Modern rail
transport systems first appeared in England in the 1820s. These systems, which
made use of the steam locomotive, were the first practical form of mechanized
land transport, and they remained the primary form of mechanized land transport
for the next 100 years.
The history
of rail transport also includes the history of rapid transit and arguably
monorail history.
Aviation
Main
article: Aviation history
Humanity's
desire to fly likely dates to the first time man observed birds, an observation
illustrated in the legendary stories of Daedalus and Icarus in Greek mythology,
and the Vimanas in Indian mythology. Much of the focus of early research was on
imitating birds, but through trial and error, balloons, airships, gliders and
eventually powered aircraft and other types of flying machines were invented.
Kites were
the first form of man-made flying objects,[2] and early records suggest that
kites were around before 200 BC in China.[3] Leonardo da Vinci's dream of
flight found expression in several designs, but he did not attempt to
demonstrate flight by literally constructing them.
During the
17th and 18th century, when scientists began analysing the Earth's atmosphere,
gases such as hydrogen were discovered which in turn led to the invention of
hydrogen balloons.[2] Various theories in mechanics by physicists during the
same period of time—notably fluid dynamics and Newton's laws of motion—led to
the foundation of modern aerodynamics. Tethered balloons filled with hot air
were used in the first half of the 19th century and saw considerable action in
several mid-century wars, most notably the American Civil War, where balloons
provided observation during the Siege of Petersburg.
Pilots of
611 West Lancashire Squadron lend a hand pushing an early Spitfire Mark IXb,
Biggin Hill, late 1942.
Apart from
some scattered reference in ancient and medieval records, resting on slender
evidence and in need of interpretation, the earliest clearly verifiable human
flight took place in Paris in 1783, when Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and
François Laurent d'Arlandes went 5 miles (8.0 km) in a hot air balloon invented
by the Montgolfier brothers. The Wright brothers made the first sustained,
controlled and powered heavier-than-air flight on December 17, 1903, in their
revolutionary aircraft, the Wright Flyer.
World War
II saw a drastic increase in the pace of aircraft development and production.
All countries involved in the war stepped up development and production of
aircraft and flight based weapon delivery systems, such as the first long range
bomber.
After the
war ended, commercial aviation grew rapidly, using mostly ex-military aircraft
to transport people and cargo. This growth was accelerated by the glut of heavy
and super-heavy bomber airframes like the B-29 and Lancaster that could be
converted into commercial aircraft. The first commercial jet airliner to fly
was the British De Havilland Comet. This marked the beginning of the Jet Age, a
period of relatively cheap and fast international travel.
In the
beginning of the 21st century, subsonic military aviation focused on
eliminating the pilot in favor of remotely operated or completely autonomous
vehicles. Several unmanned aerial vehicles or UAVs have been developed. In
April 2001 the unmanned aircraft Global Hawk flew from Edwards AFB in the US to
Australia non-stop and unrefuelled. This is the longest point-to-point flight
ever undertaken by an unmanned aircraft, and took 23 hours and 23 minutes. In
October 2003 the first totally autonomous flight across the Atlantic by a
computer-controlled model aircraft occurred. Major disruptions to air travel in
the 21st Century included the closing of U.S. airspace following the September
11 attacks, and the closing of northern European airspace after the 2010
eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull.
Spaceflight
Main article:
Spaceflight
See also:
Space Age
The
realistic dream of spaceflight dated back to Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, however
Tsiolkovsky wrote in Russian, and this was not widely influential outside
Russia. Spaceflight became an engineering possibility with the work of Robert
H. Goddard's publication in 1919 of his paper 'A Method of Reaching Extreme
Altitudes'; where his application of the de Laval nozzle to liquid-propellant
rockets gave sufficient power that interplanetary travel became possible. This
paper was highly influential on Hermann Oberth and Wernher von Braun, later key
players in spaceflight.
The first
human spaceflight was achieved with the Soviet space program's Vostok 1 mission
in 1961. The lead architects behind the mission were Sergei Korolev and Kerim
Kerimov, with Yuri Gagarin being the first astronaut. Kerimov later went on to
launch the first space docks (Kosmos 186 and Kosmos 188) in 1967 and the first
space stations (Salyut and Mir series) from 1971 to 1991.[4][5] The first
spaceflight to the Moon was achieved with NASA's Apollo 11 mission in 1969,
with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin being the first astronauts on the Moon. The
history of transportation is largely one of technological innovation. Advances
in technology have allowed people to travel farther, explore more territory,
and expand their influence over larger and larger areas. Even in ancient times,
new tools such as foot coverings, skis, and snowshoes lengthened the distances
that could be traveled. As new inventions and discoveries were applied to
transportation problems, travel time decreased while the ability to move more
and larger loads increased. Innovation continues today, and transportation
researchers are working to find new ways to reduce costs and increase
transportation efficiency.