The Laughing Wolf

100 Years

It was just one hundred years ago today that humanity truly took to the skies. It was a short hop, less than the wingspan of a jumbo jet, but that short hop set in motion a chain of events that has yet to run its course.

You see, what was done that day could not be done. That is what almost all the learned pundits and politicians of the day said. Heavier-than-air powered flight simply was not possible. No money should be wasted upon it, for if man were intended to fly he would have wings. What possible use could a heavier-than-air craft possibly have?

Even with proof, many refused to believe that it had been done. Being smart, the Wright Brothers took photographs, and along with witnesses, this helped prove their claim. What is not remembered today is that there was a good deal of controversy, some of which still continues in academic circles, over other claims to have the first flight. These other flights were done in secrecy, but the Wrights did theirs in the open.

The news of the flight opened the floodgates, however, and the world will never be the same. Innovation came fairly rapidly, with intense private competition between inventors and companies forcing the pace. The delicate flyer rapidly was left in the dust by more robust designs featuring more powerful engines and better controls. The rivalries were quite intense and often very personal, and the world watched.

Within 20 years, man was flying on a regular basis and planes were even being used for war. The era of barnstorming began, and new forces began to add to the forcing function of development. In addition to the personal rivalries and the growing market to commercial aviation, military demands lent impetus to the developments, and the plane reached new heights, quite literally.

Within 40 years, all metal planes were made that could do things that had been the provenance of the most wildly speculative of fiction. They could travel long distances, have multiple engines, and fly higher than the birds that have long fascinated man. They could carry heavy payloads, be it cargo, passengers, or bombs, and flights had circumnavigated the globe not in 80 days, but in weeks.

Within 60 years, the plane had reached space for the first true astronauts were not riding missiles, but planes that reached the limit set by international agreements. These planes were indeed rockets, and what rockets they were.

Within 80 years, air travel – once dismissed as a fad which could never carry any significant number of passengers – was the world’s primary means of intercontinental travel. Even within countries, air travel is the first choice of those needing to go a long distance in a hurry. The air travel industry, commercial and civil, is enormous and worth billions of dollars to the economy.

Now we stand at 100 years. The Wright’s flight came some 3,000 years since the earliest designs on flight by the ancient Greeks and Chinese. Yes, I am counting the gentleman who tried the rocket chair in the mix, for it was just an early rocketry failure in my book. The Wright’s were close to 1,000 years since da Vinci did his drawings and experiments. Thousands of years in the making, and look at how much has happened in a mere 100 years.

Today, we stand poised on a new century of flight that may move even faster than the first. Civil aviation is making even more advances and changes, and is one of the safest modes of transportation the world has ever seen. Commercial aviation is the same, and as for military aviation – just wait, because the best is yet to come.

More importantly, there is a new generation of Wright’s at work today. Just as the Wrights, Langley, and the other pioneers of powered flight competed for a prize, there are people today competing for a new prize: the X-Prize. More than just a flight, it has to be a repeated flight carrying passengers. Nor is it just a hundred or so feet, it is to space.

I think the Wright’s would sympathize with these modern pioneers, for the chorus is the same: What good is it? What market is there for it? Only the ultra rich can afford it, it will never take off. The only thing missing right now is “Get a horse” Okay, that came from automobiles, but was also occasionally shouted to a pilot fixing a plane in a field.

The parallels continue, with the government largely non-interested and non-responsive. It is not government money that fueled the Wrights, but their own. Almost all of the X-Prize companies are privately financed, and some are even refusing to take government money. It is not the government’s dream, but the dreams of private individuals that will start this next century of revolution, this next century of flight.

Where the government was helpful in the early days, and not too much of a hindrance, was with air mail. The money for doing that job fueled aviation companies and aviation development. May the government have that much sense again, if it is even needed. For private companies have tasted space, they have studied history, and they see the possibilities. Those seeds are planted, and the new century of flight can reap them even as they sow the future.

In 100 years, we have advanced faster and farther than in the previous 3,000 years of flight. It is not even a comparison where one can say “combined” or other simplicities for ease of consumption. In 100 years we have not just met the dream, but begun taking it to the stars. We have gone from 100 feet to 100 miles to 1,000 miles and beyond. Circumnavigation of the globe is now commonplace, and it took a non-stop circumnavigation to draw any attention to this routine event. Thousands of people travel by air every day, and the figure is in the millions for the year. Zero to millions. 100 years.

What will this new century bring? I will not guess, for I think that my most wild speculation will be surpassed in less than 50 at the current rate of advance. If the dreamers, the speculators, those who put their sweat and own money into it do it again, we may well truly be on our way to the stars in 100 years. I hope that they do. I hope we are.

100 years. It is full of stars. This applies to the last century, as well as to the next. The stars were legion in the last, for the Wright’s simply opened a door and many other brave souls followed and took the torch forward. I will not even attempt to list all the names, for who should be on that list is still hotly debated.

My question for you now, is who will be the Wright’s of the next generation? I have suspicions and favorites here too, and again I will not say. All I will say is watch the skies. There is a new century of flight starting, one which 100 years ago was unthinkable.

100 years. Happy Birthday, heavier-than-air powered flight. Just look at what you have done. Just look at what you can do.

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