I went to the bi-annual air show today; It is an interesting assortment of people that you get to see at one of those events. Kind of like the state fair but with an announcer yodeling on and on in the background about how much the U.S. kicks ass. (I am amazed more every year at the amount of technology we can produce in the name of kicking ass). I was less impressed this year with the Military Aircraft as I have been. Sure, its cool to see what an unlimited amount of money, power and Jet-A can do but in the end I decided that as impressive as the F-22 is, it’s essentially just an amazing piece of software. If the computers went out on an aircraft like the f-22 the pilot would have to eject. It is simply to much airplane for a human to fly without the millions of corrections from the flight computers. For my money, I enjoyed the Super cub demonstration. That was true flying, man feeling his way through the air, using the seat of his pants to tell him where his airplane is. For me, aviation is about romance, mans love affair with flight. Our desire to leave the surly bonds of earth and dance on laughter silvered wings has haunted us, I’m sure, since we saw the first bird fly over our heads. Ironically, it seems that with all the innovations in avionics, aerodynamic, and thrust, we are creating aircraft that can fly faster and higher than we ever even thought possible. We are leaving our dreams of flight in the clouds below us.
