David Amos

  In 1939, World War Two began in Europe. This war would last for almost five years. In Germany, Hans von Ohain designed and installed a completely new type of engine in an aircraft, an engine which would enable the aircraft to fly at a truly high speed. This was the first jet engine, pushed forward by air which was first sucked up and compressed, and the exhaust gases expelled at great pressure. Two years later, quite independently of von Ohain, an English engineer, Frank Whittle achieved the same results. But the first people to install the new motor in an aircraft were the Germans. Their Messerschmitt Me 262 , used during the last stages of the Second World War, gave the best performance.                 By the end of the War, jet engines had begun to be used in passenger aircraft, too. Now, people could fly at higher speeds and so complete their journeys within an unbelievably short time. Passengers tr...

  The passion for the motor car turned into racing and by the end of 19 th century the first racing car competitions had begun. To begin with, there were no limits or rules as to the types of cars taking part in different races, and the competition was open to almost any method of transport on four wheels. Then from 1906, the competition was divided into two major groups of ‘formula cars’, both of which were free to experiment with technical improvements to make the car perform better. The first group were the course formula cars , with specifications as to the number of engine cylinders, fuel consumption and the size of the car. The second group were the free group which had no specification limits.                 Formula 1 racing began in 1946, and from the time it was officially establish in 1950, it was destined to become the most famous racing car competition in the world. Formula 1 began as a raci...

       The first bicycle was just two wheels mounted on a rigid frame. It was built by French engineer J.N. Niepce and was the first ‘manpowered’ vehicle on wheels. Then in 1817, German nobleman Karl von Drais made a bicycle called the ‘Draisine’. This had handlebars and a front wheel that could be steered, so that the cyclist could change direction. Instead of pedals, the cyclist moved along by pushing with the tips of the feet. It had no brakes, which made it dangerous. In 1838 Scottish inventor Kirkpatrick Macmillan applied a system of gears to the wheels which were worked by the feet. But the modern bicycle was born in 1855, built by a young French workman, Ernest Michaux, who perfected Macmillan’s system by applying pedal directly on the front wheel. By 1860, the ‘michaudina’ had brakes. An important breakthrough came in 1896 when the first proper bicycle gears was patented by Englishman Edmund Hodgkinson . These enabled the cyclist to vary the numbers of spin...