10/26/05
I was looking at a helicopter while driving today. It appeared to be just flying around, inspecting the traffic on the highway, nothing unusual. But it is a marvel. Think of it. This big metal machine can not only hold itself aloft, but also go wherever it wants. On nothing more than creating a difference in air pressure and maintaining balance. In addition to lifting its own weight -- a big metal machine -- it can also carry the weight of a number of people. Commonplace yet amazing! Airplanes too -- just incredible. In a way I think aircraft technology is more sophisticated even than rocket science. Rocketry after all is just maintaining a controlled explosion and Newtonian ballistic physics. Amazing in its own right, but the principles behind rocket engines are simpler I think, than those behind the humble airfoil and maintaining control of an aircraft. The challenge with rocketry is mainly keeping the powerful forces involved under control. But with flying, it's maintaining a balance, literally and figuratively, between a chaos of forces, most of which are powerful enough by themselves to destroy the aircraft.
It's amazing. Aircraft are marvels. Don't take them for granted.
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