Wings #6

1.  I think that the most significant impact of aviation was the way that it made the world smaller.  I think this is the most important because the ever-expanding range of aviation has touched every aspect of human life.  In the earliest years it allowed us to reach the skies.  As technology continued to improve it allowed the horrors of war to travel further and faster than every before, consuming the world in two total wars and changing the face of warfare to a global one and not a local one.  Slowly but surely we explored all the far reaches of the Earth--so much so that tribes of people that have never been reached by the modern world have seen airplanes.  Aviation allowed us to do everything faster and threw the world into the hectic pace it travels today.  Technology invented for military aviation led to the invention of technology like the internet and GPS systems.  Aviation not only made the world smaller, it also made the universe smaller.  With the power of flight man has done the unthinkable and left our planet.  Aviation led to the satellites that mapped the remaining hidden portions of Earth and orbiting telescopes that have mapped the farthest reaches of space.  We have even sent probes out of our solar system!  Aviation has allowed us to shrink the world and the universe down to a human scale.

2.  It is hard to predict the future of aviation without sounding like a science-fiction writer from the 1930s--flying cars! jet packs! vacations in space!!!  Aviation, like a lot of technology now is facing a bit of a lull as we approach the peak of current technology and are waiting for the next big discovery.  Quantum computing seems to be just around the corner and will lead to major breakthroughs in the amount of computing power.  This could result in airplanes that could redirect on the fly, account for subtle changes in air currents and pressure, and generally make aircraft safer and more comfortable.  The aviation industry will also have to change dramatically over the next few decades.  Outdated airplanes will need to be replaced for safety and comfort reasons.  If the airline business does not evolve they will find that society has left them behind.  I do not think that super-sonic flight will be pursued for commercial aviation because it is too costly in terms of fuel, and recent research shows that high altitude flight may damage the atmosphere more than previously thought.  It is also likely that the airline industry along with everyone else will have to figure out an alternate fuel source in order to bring down carbon emissions in the near future.  I'm hoping the future of aviation has a focus on space exploration.  I'm a bit of a Star Trek geek and seeing commercial space travel become a reality would be a dream come true!  Overall in the next hundred years I don't think flight will evolve as quickly as it did during its first hundred, but it will definitely continue to grow and change...and who knows?  Maybe in the next 100 or 200 years we really will be vacationing on Mars!