Wings Assignment #2 Danny Keltner

      1.)   Flight influenced many different cultures outside of aviation.  Flying became incredible popular around 1912 and many famous artists and intellectuals decided to observe this masterpiece.  Art was one of the cultures influenced by aviation.  Georges Braque for example would made his paper sculptures look like wings of a biplane.  Another concept affected was how writers wrote during that time.  Franz Kafka observed a flight in 1909 in complete shock.  That day most likely affected the way he wrote his books.  Also, several poets decided to try and express flight.  One poet named Filippo Tommaso Marinetti wrote about flight, “the flight of airplanes, whose propellers whirl through the air like flags and attract the applause of the enthusiastic crowds.”(pg. 122).  Marinetti with the influence of flight created a new artistic movement known as Futurism.  Many poets and artists now started to participate in future technologies.  Flight also had an impact on popular culture.  There were several songs created that were influenced by flight.  One particular musician named Tin Pan Alley wrote many songs about flight, such as “Come Josephine in my Flying Machine” and “My little Loving Aero Man”.  Not only that, but flight also influenced merchandising.  Objects like cigarette cases, plates, and clocks had images of airplanes on them.  Finally, flight influenced future generations.  Children were now looking up to many adolescent heroes who were able to fly.   

       

2)  The new field of aviation affected science in several ways.  The people who invented the airplanes did not bother with the scientific reasons of why they were able to fly, they were more interested in just being able to make a flying machine.  As a result of flight, a new science was being created and it’s called aerodynamics.  In the beginning of aerodynamics most researchers were worried about the concept of lift.  They were trying to figure out why when a cylinder was spun it would create a lifting force.  Many scientists at the time were creating mathematical equations that would explain fluid dynamics.  One of the most influential scientific article about fluid dynamics was Ludwig Prandtl.  Prandtl was a professor at Gottingen University and taught the ideas of fluid dynamics along with creating a wind tunnel.   His talent attracted many graduate students, one being Theodor von Karman.  Karman loved the ideas so much that he started to spread them throughout the world.  As a result of this spread of aviation, a new way of thinking in science started to spread and, “changed the way in which engineers were trained and aircraft designed” (pg. 125).  This became one of the first times that practical engineering and theoretical science were able to be used together (pg. 125).       

 7.) The cult of the heroic airman was first thought by the French.  The French viewed pilots who flew in international races as heroes because they, “risked life and limb to achieve victory and honor for the homeland”.  (pg. 156).  Then there was a natural extension to war for pilots.  These war pilots would wear the uniform of France and then literally fight to defend their country.  The first person in the cult of the heroic airman was Roland Garros.  There was an article discusses Garros’s sacrifice to France by flying into a German airship.  Then there was a prewar aerobatic pilot who became the first ace named Adolphe Pegoud.  He was called “I’as de notre aviation” (pg. 157).  Other countries began to use this title for their pilots as well depending on how many kills they had.  The cult of heroic airman is a term that describes legendary pilots from all countries.  The pilots were viewed as heroes and bring honor to their country.  The idea of foot soldiers being heroic slowly dissipated overtime because of the terrible ways they could die in WW1 (tear gas, random bullet or artillery for example).  However pilots were like knights in shining armor.  Everyone could see these pilots fight in the blue sky, and they usually would not die from unfortunate luck, only if they were not as skilled as the heroic pilot on the opposing force.  This led to the idea that pilots are heroes.