Frank Speranza Wings #2

1. Did flight have any influence outside of aviation? If so, how?

Flight influenced everyone from regular lay people to intellectuals and artists of the day. Legendary painter, Pablo Picasso, took up making model airplanes and even wrote some about airplanes (pp. 121-122). The excitement of this new era spread everywhere and was never far from sight. Marketers were having a fantastic time selling almost anything so long as it had an airplane or a pilot on it. “… For a time it seemed that images of aviators and airplanes could be used to sell anything” (p. 123). Children played with toys that were aeronautically related. The popular culture at the time was aviation. Almost everything was somehow tied to airplanes. There was a lot of new literature that was based somehow on aviation. The cowboy and Indian stories of the previous generation were replaced with exciting new adventures of aerobatics and other aviation feats.

2. How did this new field of aviation affect science?

Aviation opened up a whole new field of scientific discovery. The inventors of the airplane did not totally understand how it worked. They knew enough to make it work but the actual physics and mechanics. The study of fluids and physics and mathematics provided the scientific background for the airplane. Professors around the world now had a model to study and could interpret the results. This was a case where the theoretical science merged with the practical engineering (p. 125). Complex theories were worked out because there actual experiments being performed on the once unattained idea of flight. Researchers were trying to theorize how flight could occur and then inventors made an actual airplane. This provided the scientists with what they were looking for and they could then study the airplane with new vigor.

3. Who took the lead in establishing aviation as a business and what effect did it have on the rest of the world?

The French began the establishment of aviation as a business. Louis Bleriot was one of the originators. He was an exhibition pilot but after a crash left him with substantial injuries he turned to business. His company, Blériot Aéronautique, “produced over eight hundred aircraft in 1909-1914” (p. 126). This was just one of the French aviation companies during that time. The total number of aircraft produced during that time was much higher. Factories were built to keep up with the demand and many people were employed to build airplanes. Flight schools were opened to train the glut of new pilots. Racing and setting records was what would get people’s attention and many manufactures designed new models to be the next best airplane. A sort of positive feedback circuit where new records were being set so new planes had to be designed dominated the scene. New types of engines were designed and engineers and scientists provided input into the situation to involve even more people in the business. Automobile manufacturers of Rolls-Royce, Renault, Bentley, and Mercedes also started developing engines for aircraft, thus expanding the influence of aviation (p. 132).