The Quest for Speed 1
Introduction 2
Chapter 01 Speed Over Land 4
On Foot or by Wheel 4
Early roads 5
Stagecoaches 7
Tools of the trade 11
Steam Power—Britain and America on the Move 13
Railway travel in England 17
Isambard Kingdom Brunel 23
American railroads 25
Gathering steam 28
Twenty-First-Century Railways 30
The Channel Tunnel 30
High-speed trains 32
The Internal Combustion Engine 35
The horseless carriage 35
Racing improves the breed 37
Brooklands 40
Indianapolis 44
Le Mans 45
Grand Prix races 48
Two Wheels 55
Bicycles 55
Motorbikes 58
Motorcycle racing 61
Chapter 02 Speed Over Water 63
From Dug-Out to Sail 63
Improvements in navigation 67
When Sail was King:The Clippers 69
When Sail was King:The Fighting Ships 72
The First Steamers 75
The Atlantic Crossing 78
The slave trade 81
Cutting the journey time 83
Rowing across 84
The Australia Route 86
Round the World Sailing Races 89
The great sailing races 90
High Speed on the Water—Power Boats 91
Ground Effect Vehicles 92
Chapter 03 Speed Through the Air:The Early Days 96
Man's Desire to Fly 96
Balloons 99
Dirigibles and Airships 102
Powered Flight 108
Aeroplanes 110
The Schneider Trophy races 115
Crossing the Channel by Air 121
The First Passenger-Carying Flights:1918-1952 123
Opening up the World—the Birth of Long-Haul Flights:1918-1949 126
Flying Eastwards:1918-1939 132
Trail Blazers and Record Breakers:1925-1937 134
Success for Alan Cobham 134
"Amy,Wonderful Amy" 136
Alex Henshaw 138
Charles Lindbergh 140
Amelia Earhart 141
The Challenge of the Pacific:1932-1939 145
West to East by Imperial Airways:1931-1939 148
Chapter 04 Speed Through the Air:The Age of the Jet 154
Designing the Jet 157
The Jet Fighters 164
Breaking the Sound Barrier 168
The First Commercial Jet Services 174
Concorde 175
Air Speed Records 179
Measuring Speed 181
Variations on the Theme of Flight 182
Rotating wing machines 182
Flying cars 187
Chapter 05 The Future 190
Rockets 190
The scramjet 195
Space Travel 197
Moon landings 197
Visiting Mars 198
The Space Shuttle 200
Commercial space travel 201
The Future of Travel:Faster,Further,Smarter? 203
Or Will It Be Greener? 207
Appendices 215
Places 215
People 227
Exercises 236