vehicles

A vehicle (from Latin: vehiculum^[1]) is a mobile machine that transports people or cargo. Most often, vehicles are manufactured, such as wagons, bicycles, motor vehicles (motorcycles, cars, trucks, buses), railed vehicles (trains, trams),watercraft (ships, boats), aircraft and spacecraft.^[2]

Land vehicles are classified broadly by what is used to apply steering and drive forces against the ground: wheeled, tracked,railed or skied. ISO 3833-1977 is the standard, also internationally used in legislation, for road vehicles types, terms and definitions

• The oldest boats found by archaeological excavation are logboats from around 7,000–10,000 years ago,^[4][5][6]
• a 7,000-year-old seagoing boat made from reeds and tar has been found in Kuwait.^[7]
• Boats were used between 4000BCE-3000BCE in Sumer,^[8] ancient Egypt^[9] and in the Indian Ocean.^[8]
• There is evidence of camel pulled wheeled vehicles about 3000–4000 BCE.^[10]
• The earliest evidence of a wagonway, a predecessor of the railway, found so far was the 6 to 8.5 km (4 to 5 mi) long Diolkos wagonway, which transported boats across the Isthmus of Corinth in Greece since around 600 BC.^[11] Wheeled vehicles pulled by men and animals ran in grooves in limestone, which provided the track element, preventing the wagons from leaving the intended route.^[12]

• In 200 CE, Ma Jun built a south-pointing chariot, a vehicle with an early form of guidance system.^[13]

• Railways began reappearing in Europe after the Dark Ages. The earliest known record of a railway in Europe from this period is a stained-glass window in the Minster of Freiburg im Breisgau dating from around 1350.^[14]

• In 1515, Cardinal Matthäus Lang wrote a description of the Reisszug, a funicular railway at the Hohensalzburg Castle in Austria. The line originally used wooden rails and ahemp haulage rope and was operated by human or animal power, through a treadwheel.^[15][16]

• 1769 Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot is often credited with building the first self-propelled mechanical vehicle or automobile in 1769.^[17]

• In Russia, in the 1780s, Ivan Kulibin developed a human-pedalled, three-wheeled carriage with modern features such as a flywheel, brake, gear box and bearings; however, it was not developed further.^[18]

• 1783 Montgolfier brothers first Balloon vehicle

• 1801 Richard Trevithick built and demonstrated his Puffing Devil road locomotive, which many believe was the first demonstration of a steam-powered road vehicle, though it could not maintain sufficient steam pressure for long periods and was of little practical use.

• 1817 Push bikes, draisines or hobby horses were the first human means of transport to make use of the two-wheeler principle, the draisine (or Laufmaschine, "running machine"), invented by the German Baron Karl von Drais, is regarded as the forerunner of the modern bicycle (and motorcycle). It was introduced by Drais to the public inMannheim in summer 1817.^[19]

Automobiles are among the most commonly used engine-powered vehicles

• 1885 Karl Benz built (and subsequently patented) the first automobile, powered by his own four-stroke cycle gasoline engine inMannheim, Germany

• 1885 Otto Lilienthal began experimental gliding and achieved the first sustained, controlled, reproducible flights.

• 1903 Wright brothers flew the first controlled, powered aircraft

• 1907 First helicopters Gyroplane no.1 (tethered) and Cornu helicopter (free flight)^[20]

• 1928 Opel RAK.1 rocket car

• 1929 Opel RAK.1 rocket glider