100 Years of Air Travel and other stories

This is my first post that has nothing to do with BB.

OK, maybe a tiny something.  I hate air travel for the same reason I hate roller coasters, I'm not driving!  I hate being at the mercy of unknown people who may or may not be competent.  Also, I get motion sick if I'm not driving.  If I'm driving, I can do crazy things (like 120 laps at Mid Ohio) without getting sick.  If someone drives me down to the mailbox, I am ill for the rest of the day.

In any case, my recent, miserable air travel showed that several airlines have been flying for 100 years!  The Wright Brothers made the first powered flight in 1903.  That implies that we had functioning airlines in 1926.  I had understood that the Wright flight was not even reported for several years!

I think one of the most influential movies of my life (and maybe my brother's), was the Hallmark special featuring the Wright Brothers.  I may have finally found it on MGM+ "The Winds of Kitty Hawk". (BTW, I am from Ohio, and Dayton, OH was the center of innovation at the time.  I love the Carolinas but, at that time, they only offered wind).  In any case, their work inspired not only invention, but also new engineering methods.  They took a first principles approach to aeronautics (which didn't actually exist then, so maybe to engineering) and developed what became Toyota's Set Based Engineering.  Basically, don't aim at one solution but rather, develop a chart of how different solutions perform.  From this chart, you can identify the important parameters of the problem and plot their influence, allowing you to home in on the best solution.  I can't fail to include their most famous picture, which I've used in several speeches:

This is something we might lose (or possibly amplify) through Artificial Intelligence.  AI can make that chart in an instant but does it have soul?  On one hand, this could uncover factors a human mind would not have considered.  On the other hand, it is sometimes so "good" that a human will neglect more thought to climb on board the AI train (see my post .https://www.theoldmanandthemgb.com/2026/04/a-good-engineer-always-does-math-before.html).  

I'll be damned.  Google just taught me that Varney Airlines , which later became United, was founded in 1926.  I think I would not have climbed into one of those early planes!  Which reminds me of visiting a museum in Sinzheim, near Stuttgart in Germany.  They had an exhibit of the Russian supersonic aircraft Tupolev Tu-144.  This aircraft was the first supersonic but pulled from service after two crashes.  Looking at the wiring behind the panels at the German museum, I had no doubts.  The wiring I did for BB is worse but BB is not yet flying beyond the speed of sound at 30,000 feet! I can always get to know a new tow truck driver!

This time machine also reminded me how quickly we take things for granted.  I return to the early days of my career.  We often had to print out vibration measurements to drive to Detroit to show our customers.  At my beginning, we had a pen plotter.  Likely no one reading this has seen one so I'll describe it.  It looked like a 3D printer with two drives for x and y but they held a pen instead of a plastic nozzle.  This pen is then dragged over a piece of paper (or a transparent overlay for use on overhead projectors!).  The fancy ones had a little carousel with different pen colors.  If you had 10 pages of measurements to plot you were having dinner beside the plotter!

When we got our first laser printer, we were stunned.  It was like a page a minute!  This wonder lasted about two trips.  Preparing for the third, we were snapping our fingers at the printer like "C'mon, go faster!".

I think this laser printer effect applies perfectly to air travel. As much as I hate flying, I have to acknowledge the absolute miracle of it. Modern humans have been around for roughly 250,000 years, yet we've only taken to the skies in the last century. We soar through the clouds in a veritable chariot of the gods—a concept unimaginable for millennia—often enjoying a cold beer while looking down on mountains and plains. Yet, we still complain when a flight is 20 minutes late. On most trips, I throw my window shade wide open, crank up my soundtrack, and soak in the magic. Fortunately, I feel free to sing along because my fellow passengers are usually oblivious, with their (very bland, beige) blinds shut and earbuds securely in, completely missing the miracle outside.

I'd also point out other miracles (and by miracles I refer to incredible accomplishments that humans have made, using the gifts given by our creator, however we characterize her!) that my fellow travellers are missing.

We talk about flyover country, where this is "only" farmland.  There is a quiet miracle happening for generations that allows us to feed humanity.  

We use roughly the same land area to feed today's population that we needed in 1960!  Observe the miracle while flying over those "flyover states"!

Also, we built the city.  There are obvious pro's and con's to cities, but the fact is that they amplify humanity!  We use fewer resources in a city as we are closer together.  Perhaps more importantly, we generate more ideas when we are clustered together.  There are around 20% more patents awarded to dwellers of dense cities than the average populations.  Consider this the next time you are frustrated (quite rightly) while circling O'hare:

Yes, that is Chicago from an airplane window.  When they flooded, they raised the entire city up by 3 feet.  And we think we have problems!

I'll try to think of the laser printer the next flight delay.  At least I'm not (usually) ordering pizza while I wait!

And the tie in to BB.  A similar reminder.  This used to be every car, only 50 years ago.  No cruise control, no lane keeping, no back-up camera, no AI.  No three-way catalyst.  Imagine when every car smelled like BB (no offense BB!).  If God felt good about you that day, you might get a good FM signal.  If you were a very successful teenager, you might have a cassette player!  Now, we complain if we can't stream Spotify on "Lossless".  

Expectations are always rising but human innovation is always outpacing them.  Here's to invention and appreciation and to having #funwithcars !