Think about it…hunks of metal should NOT be able to stay in the sky.
This week's Everyday Miracle was triggered by a visit to the Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville, Oregon. Though I talked about taking my sons for years and years, this was my first visit--with my younger son, who is now in his thirties and my grandson. Ah, yes, the best intentions…
I was fascinated!
This is the home of the Spruce Goose, built entirely of wood by Howard Hughes. It is the largest airplane ever constructed--with a wingspan of over 300 feet, longer than the first flight of the Wright Brothers. However, this mammoth airplane made only one flight, just over one mile at an altitude of 70 feet for one minute.
This plane is indeed huge, dwarfing every other plane in the Evergreen Aviation Museum. Here are a couple photos--one taken from the back of the Spruce Goose; the other taken under one massive wing, with several airplanes sitting underneath.
In spite of my disbelief that airplanes should be able to fly, I have flown in them, and looked up some reassuring statistics:
--Dr. Arnold Barnett, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has done extensive research in the field of commercial flight safety. He found that over the fifteen years between 1975 and 1994, the death risk per flight was one in seven million.
--Based on this incredible safety record, if you flew every day of your life, probability indicates that it would take you nineteen thousand years before you would succumb to a fatal accident.
That's compared to approximately one hundred and thirty people killed every day in auto accidents.
[These statistics come from Anxieties.com .]
We've certainly come a long way in a relatively short period of time. Many of the advancements in sci-fi novels are not as ludicrous as they might seem given how advanced technology has become in the last two centuries.
ReplyDeleteHi, David!
ReplyDeleteI was amazed when the tour guide at the museum said we went from the first flight of the Wright brothers to landing a man on the moon in 66 years. Wow!
Then I walked through the Space part of the museum where they had a huge visual timeline of the events leading up to space travel--much of it political. Again, I was amazed. My history classes in school a "few" years ago weren't nearly as interesting. :)
So maybe I should start reading sci-fi novels to see what's coming next!
Thank you for stopping by!