60 Fun Facts About Transportation

The Wright Flyer made the first sustained powered, controlled flight in December of which year?

The Wrights flew it four times that day near Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina; the aircraft now hangs in the National Air and Space Museum.

What was the nickname of the Ford Model T?

Over 15 million were sold between 1908 and 1927; Henry Ford watched the 15 millionth roll off the line at Highland Park, Michigan.

Which car overtook the Model T as the best-selling car in history in 1972?

Production of the Type 1 finally ended at Volkswagen's Puebla plant in Mexico on 30 July 2003, after 21,529,464 cars.

Japan's first Shinkansen line opened in 1964, shortly before which event?

The Tōkaidō Shinkansen began service on 1 October 1964, nine days before the Games opened, linking Tokyo, Yokohama, Nagoya and Osaka.

How many passenger fatalities from derailments or collisions has the Shinkansen recorded in over 60 years?

That record covers more than 10 billion passengers, in a country hit by frequent earthquakes and typhoons.

The world's first underground passenger railway opened in London in which year?

The Metropolitan Railway ran between Paddington and Farringdon using gas-lit wooden carriages hauled by steam locomotives.

The Johnston typeface used across the London Underground was created in which year?

Edward Johnston's lettering and the roundel remain two of the most recognisable pieces of transport branding anywhere.

Which country began building the Panama Canal in 1881 before abandoning the project?

Engineering problems and a horrific worker death rate ended the effort in 1889; the US took over in 1904 and opened the canal in 1914.

Ships transiting the Panama Canal are lifted by locks 26 metres up into which artificial reservoir?

The lake sits 26 metres above sea level and was created by damming the Chagres River to cut down on digging.

Which two airlines were the only ones to fly Concorde in scheduled commercial service?

Braniff briefly leased Concordes for a subsonic Dallas–Washington hop from 1979 to 1980, but only the two national carriers flew it supersonically.

Concorde's regular service speed was capped at what to extend the life of its airframe?

Above about Mach 2 air friction heats an aluminium airframe enough to soften it, which is why the design speed was capped where it was.

Which former bicycle-maker's company, founded by J. K. Starley, later became a British car brand?

Ball bearings, pneumatic tyres, chain sprockets and tension-spoked wheels were all developed for bicycles before cars borrowed them.

The Segway self-balancing transporter was invented by whom?

It was unveiled on Good Morning America in Bryant Park in December 2001 after months of breathless speculation.

The Hindenburg burst into flames in 1937 while docking at a naval air station in which US state?

Herbert Morrison's anguished radio report from the Lakehurst landing field was broadcast the next day and became one of the most famous recordings of the century.

What gas filled the Hindenburg?

American Airlines had a deal to shuttle the airship's passengers from Lakehurst to Newark to catch connecting flights.

Which airline put the Boeing 747 into commercial service in January 1970?

The first 747 rolled out of Boeing's purpose-built Everett plant, then the world's largest building by volume, in September 1968.

Who led the design team for the Boeing 747?

He left the 737 programme in 1965 to take on the jumbo, the first aircraft to be called a "Jumbo Jet".

The Channel Tunnel connects Folkestone in England with which French town?

Queen Elizabeth II and President Mitterrand opened the 50.46 km tunnel in Calais on 6 May 1994, a year behind schedule.

The Trans-Siberian Railway runs from Moscow to which Pacific port?

At over 9,289 km it is the longest railway line in the world, and it has linked the two cities directly since 1916.

The world's first traffic lights, installed in December 1868, stood outside which building?

They were gas-lit and showed red or green at night to spare policemen from directing traffic on Parliament Square.

Which policeman developed the first electric traffic light in Salt Lake City in 1912?

Two years later the American Traffic Signal Company installed a version at East 105th and Euclid in Cleveland, Ohio.

Nils Bohlin developed the modern three-point seat belt for which car maker, which made it standard in 1959?

The company famously left the design open for rival manufacturers to adopt, which is why every car now has one.

Which US president signed the 1956 act that created the Interstate Highway System?

Construction displaced roughly one million people over the next two decades and sparked "freeway revolts" that rerouted several planned routes.

In 1956 Malcom McLean loaded 58 containers onto which converted tanker?

The ship sailed from Newark to Houston; by 2009 roughly 90% of the world's non-bulk cargo moved in stacked containers.

Which crossing took the Golden Gate's title as the world's longest suspension span in 1964?

The Golden Gate held the tallest-suspension-bridge title much longer, until Japan's Akashi Kaikyo Bridge in 1998.

Which French diplomat formed the company that built the Suez Canal, opened in 1869?

Unlike Panama, the Suez Canal is a sea-level waterway with no locks at all, so seawater flows freely along it.

Stephenson's Rocket won which 1829 locomotive competition?

The Liverpool and Manchester Railway staged it to prove moving locomotives beat stationary steam engines hauling trains by rope.

In which year was Karl Benz's Patent-Motorwagen, considered the first practical car, patented?

His firm Benz & Cie. in Mannheim was the world's first automobile plant and the largest of its day.

The Montgolfier brothers made their living making what?

Their first public balloon, flown at Annonay in June 1783, was sackcloth lined with three thin layers of paper.

Which airline took the first delivery of the Airbus A380 in October 2007?

The full-length double-decker seats about 525 in a typical layout but is certified for up to 853; production ended in 2021.

How many lifeboats did the Titanic actually carry on her maiden voyage?

They could hold 1,178 people, about a third of the ship's capacity, yet still exceeded the Board of Trade's requirement of 16.

In which city was the Titanic built?

Harland and Wolff built her as the second of three Olympic-class liners, between RMS Olympic and HMHS Britannic.

The Vespa scooter's name is Italian for which insect?

Audrey Hepburn riding side-saddle on Gregory Peck's Vespa in Roman Holiday (1953) is credited with over 100,000 sales.

On unrestricted stretches of the German Autobahn, what advisory speed limit applies?

Driving faster is legal, but courts have ruled an "ideal driver" would not exceed it, so exceeding it raises liability in a crash.

Which entrepreneur published the 2013 white paper describing the Hyperloop?

He had teased it as a "fifth mode of transport" a year earlier; the design used low-pressure tubes and capsules riding on air bearings.

The word "rickshaw" comes from a term in which language?

Jinrikisha literally means "human-powered vehicle"; the vehicles were independently invented in Tokyo around 1869.

What is unusual about the shape of a Venetian gondola's hull?

The lopsided hull makes single-oar sculling more efficient; only about 400 licensed gondoliers remain in Venice.

Jesse Reno's first working escalator was installed in 1896 as a ride at which amusement spot?

He called it an "inclined elevator"; Harrods in London unveiled a stepless version by Piat two years later.

Who staged a death-defying demonstration of his safety elevator at New York's Crystal Palace in 1854?

The first passenger elevator using his brake went into 488 Broadway in 1857; the device made tall buildings practical.

The SR.N1, the first practical hovercraft, famously crossed which body of water in July 1959?

Inventor Christopher Cockerell joked that the Navy called it a plane, the RAF called it a boat, and the Army was "plain not interested".

The 603 km/h rail speed record set in 2015 belongs to an experimental maglev from which country?

The L0 Series holds the record; the Shanghai maglev, using German Transrapid technology, held the passenger operating record of 431 km/h from 2002 to 2021.

Uber's ride-hailing app launched publicly in 2011 in which city?

Co-founder Garrett Camp got the idea after he and Travis Kalanick spent $800 hiring a private driver on New Year's Eve.

Ferdinand von Zeppelin's first airship made its maiden flight in 1900 over which body of water?

It was assembled in a floating hangar near Friedrichshafen; the later Graf Zeppelin flew scheduled transatlantic services to North America and Brazil.

Fulton's 1807 North River Steamboat carried passengers between New York City and which city?

The 150-mile trip up the Hudson took 32 hours, which was quick enough to make commercial steam navigation viable.

The Magic Roundabout, five mini-roundabouts around one island, is in which English town?

Frank Blackmore, inventor of the mini-roundabout, designed it; traffic can circulate in both directions around the centre.

The world's first passenger railway service, horse-drawn, began in 1807 in which country?

The Swansea and Mumbles Railway was authorised by Parliament in 1804 and later ran steam and electric trams along the same shore.

The penny-farthing bicycle takes its name from what?

Seen from the side, the big front wheel and small rear wheel resembled a large penny leading a tiny farthing.

The Heinkel He 178, the world's first jet plane, first flew in August of which year?

Hans von Ohain built its engine unaware of Frank Whittle's parallel work in Britain, which had begun with a 1928 proposal at RAF Cranwell.

An aircraft's "black box" flight recorder is actually required to be painted which colour?

Australian scientist David Warren conceived the cockpit voice recorder in 1953 while working in Port Melbourne.

The Orient Express began service in 1883 between Paris and which city?

The route was later extended to Constantinople; the last timetabled departure from Paris was on 8 June 2007.

Grand Central Terminal in New York has more of what than any other railway station in the world?

It has 44 of them across 48 acres, and a four-sided brass clock on the information booth that is one of the city's best-known meeting spots.

How long did Charles Lindbergh's 1927 solo flight from New York to Paris take?

He took off from Roosevelt Field on Long Island and landed at Le Bourget, winning the $25,000 Orteig Prize.

US Route 66 ran from Chicago to which Californian city?

Established in 1926 and removed from the highway system in 1985, it earned the nickname "Mother Road" from Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath.

The 1823 horse-drawn service that gave the bus its name ran to a spa in a suburb of which French city?

Mill owner Stanislas Baudry's vehicles stopped outside a hatter named Omnés whose sign read 'Omnes Omnibus', and the nickname stuck.

Which 1936 aircraft is regarded as the first successful, practical, fully controllable helicopter?

Sikorsky's R-4 became the first helicopter to reach full-scale production in 1942.

London's first taxi rank appeared in 1636 outside the Maypole Inn on which street?

The first documented public hackney coach service for hire had started in London in 1605.

The hansom cab was patented in 1834 by Joseph Hansom, who worked as what?

His two-wheel design was light enough for a single horse and nimble in London's notorious traffic jams.

Christopher Cockerell tested his hovercraft concept using a hairdryer and two tin cans that had held what?

The ring of fast-moving air between the concentric cans formed a barrier that kept the cushion in, the key to a practical craft.

Which company originally owned 'Hovercraft' as a trademark?

That is why other makers used alternative names; the firm later became the British Hovercraft Corporation and then Westland.

How fast does the commercial maglev train in Shanghai run?

Conventional high-speed rail tops out around 350 km/h and needs specially built track to do it.