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
adapted from list originally compiled by Niel Brandt