Category:Transportation

Background

Looking north at the High Street Subway in Columbus, Ohio, USA, 1888

Traversing the Earth through land, sea and air has been one of the driving factors behind technological innovation. From the ancient invention of the wheel to modern devices like trains, planes and automobiles, transportation remains a constant concern for society.

By water, human ancestors were already boating great distances thousands of years ago. Originally at the mercy of currents, human-powered oars were soon adopted, and ultimately the wind was harnessed.

On land, humans always sought ways to travel and transport more efficiently, from the wheel barrows to bicycles to skateboards. Animals—as in “Horsepower”—provided the energy for one of the oldest forms of engineered transportation methods, used by humans for thousands of years before its decline in the 19th century. James Watt's 1781 steam engine revolutionized travel and gave power to early locomotives and transformed the ship to free it not just from tides from winds as well. Eventually, steam gave way to electricity, and Frank Sprague made huge advancements in electrification of railroads. The Richmond Union Passenger Railway line served as a prototype for the first commercial street car. Olds and others pioneered the use of the internal combustion engine for transportation, and Henry Ford would later mass produce automobiles, making them an affordable reality for people around the world. The Wright brothers and other pioneers began heavier than air human flight at the beginning of the 20th century, and Jet engines were developed during World War II, along with the V1 and V2 Rockets that would set the stage for the developments in both air and space travel over the next decades. At the same time, water travel was no longer limited to the surface, but a whole new world was opened up by underwater oceanic engineering developments.

Subcategories

• Aerospace engineering - Topics pertaining to designing vehicles and their electronic systems meant for flying in the atmosphere or in space
• Aviation - Concerns with transportation in the air
• Airborne radar - Radar designed to be mounted in aircraft
• Automotive engineering - Topics related to the design of automobiles including automotive electronics and vehicle crash testing
• Freight transportation - Methods of transporting cargo
• Intelligent transportation systems - The integration of communications, information science and control systems into transportation systems
• Land mobile radio equipment - Radios used in vehicles, typically automobiles
• Land transportation - Broad topics dealing with land transportation, including road and rails
• Marine transportation - Broad topics dealing with marine transportation
• Navigation - Topics relating to tracking a vehicle's position, including satellite navigation systems and radar navigation
• Propulsion - Engines which produce thrust to drive a vehicle forward including aircraft propulsion and rockets
• Traffic management - Topics dealing with the control of traffic congestion and flow
• Vehicles - Types of vehicles such as aircraft, rail vehicles and road vehicles
• Wireless sensor networks - Networks of sensors which monitor various conditions