R E A TI C V E N O CATI E DU TABLE OF Contents Introduction 4 Walking Wheels and World Travel 6 The Compass Points the Way 13 First in Space 14 Enhancing Safety and Efficiency 16 Competition Fuels Improvement 23 The Risks of Discovery 25 Better Fuels and Farther Flights 28 Food Versus Fuel 30 Global Positioning Progress 33 From Here to There 36 A Glimpse of the Future 39 Magellan Circles the World 42 Glossary 44 Selected Bibliography 46 Web Sites 46 Index 47
INTRODUCTION W hen you are ready for school each morning do you walk pedal your bike ride in a car or take the bus Imagine hopping into your own transporter powered by electricity or perhaps solar energy and quietly gliding down the street If there were too many cars on the road you could simply steer up into the air and fly the rest of the way Other vehicles would be zooming around too but everyone would be following the rules of air space The Jetsons were a cartoon family that lived in space flying their small personal ships from place to place Reality might someday catch up with this fantasy especially if people set up colonies to live in space For now you’ll have to stick to traditional modes of transportation such as cars and buses as you go to school the grocery store and other destinations But in the future you might find yourself racing across the country on a high-speed train traversing the ocean in a personal submarine or rocketing to the moon For thousands of years the way people travel has improved by leaps and bounds Instead of walking along paths beaten down by animals people can drive at high speeds on smooth paved highways One hundred years ago the very first cars and airplanes were being developed today scientists are eyeing trips to Mars What does the future hold next 4
Although people have long dreamed of the day when flying-saucer type transportation will become reality most transportation will remain on the ground for a while
