Hofstetter WINGS #6

1. In your opinion, what was the most significant impact aviation had on our world in the first one hundred years of flight?

It is difficult to decide what was the most significant impact aviation had on our world during the first one hundred years of flight. Aviation has impacted the entire world in many different ways. Businesses and individuals alike are affected by the impact of aviation. The military certainly has been altered in a drastic way by the introduction and implementation of aircraft. Looking at the whole picture, in my opinion, transportation has been impacted in the most significant way by aviation. Aviation has opened up a method of travel that could only be dreamed about decades before. It was first in 1956 that the number of domestic passengers traveling by air exceeded the number of bus passengers. Also in that year more people flew over the Atlantic than crossed it by ship. Transcontinental flight creates the opportunity for people to visit places of the world they would never have visited without the invention of flight. Aircraft has not only broadened our horizons, but it creates opportunity to travel much quicker than the car or ship can allow us. Businesses today do not hesitate to send employees overseas by the use of aircraft. Air travel today has even been seen as a luxury, especially when looking at how often celebrities choose flight over ground transportation.

2.   What do you think the future holds for aviation in the twenty first century?

Aviation has evolved very quickly over the past 100 years. The future of aviation certainly has the potential to change just as quickly, if not more quickly, than it has in the past. How quickly technology in aviation advances makes it difficult to predict what the future will hold. It is reasonable to say that the aircraft will continue to change in size, shape, and mechanics with aircraft being powered by different fuel sources and aircraft reaching increasingly record speeds in the future. Aviation will surely continue to play a vital role in the military and in the transport of people and goods. I believe that more people will be traveling by aircraft in the future. Aviation has made what appears to be a permanent presence in society today and I do believe people will continue to choose aircraft as the form of travel that can get them to the furthest locations the quickest.