Connecting Us (Part 1) - Let's Fly Away!
Connecting Us (Part 1) - Let's Fly Away!
Beijing to London. Challenge Accepted! If I asked you the distance between Beijing and London and how long it took to get there you to would probably say - "Um...I think around about 4,000 miles (6,400km) and probably an 8 hour flight..." And if you responded with around the same answer as I first did. You are very wrong. It is roughly around 5,000 miles (8,300km) and takes about 10.5 hours.
Isn't that insane! We live in a world where if you could have breakfast in Beijing, hop onto a flight and have a 5 hour nap before having lunch in London. Well it is all thanks to metal birds. Planes.
Connecting our World - Introducing Planes
In this special series on Farren's Opinion Corner, I want to tell you more about the idea of Transportation and how new inventions have connected our world. There are a few example for this series. We will begin with Planes, huge metal birds that glides in the sky. Starting with the Wright Brothers in 1903, to the COVID-19 aviation crisis in 2021. There will also be no tolerance of puns and jokes in the various articles.
Can we be birds aswell?
Of course. But if I asked you that in 1880 something, you'd say: "Hahaha! Very funny! Of course not!" That was until 1903, the year when the Wright brothers, Wilbur and Orville, went to Kitty Hawk in sunny North Carolina with the first prototype of a metal bird. After 4 unsuccessful flights, the plane was off the ground for a total of 59 seconds (not 1 minute just yet). That is why North Carolina's car plates all say 'The First Flight' with a cute emoji of an old plane.
So, can we be birds? Of course. Afterwards, the brothers perfected the model of the airplane by making modifications to the plane. Unfortunately, it would only take less than 12 years for the plane to become a part of defense purposes.
Into Combat Mode: First World War
In 1914, Austro-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand along with his wife Sophie were assassinated in Sarejevo. One thing leads to another, and suddenly the entire Europe was in full combat mode. This was when leaders and people realised and thought. "If fighting on land is a fair-fair thing. Why don't we fight in the skies!" So that was exactly what happened. The major powers of the war began bombing each other in the skies but air forces back then were small so more fighting occured on land.
Into Autopilot Mode: 25 Years of Plane Progress
Following the war, more aviation stuff happened. First up, Amelia Earhart. For those who don't know, Earhart is a professional pilot. She flew across the Atlantic ocean in 1928 then did it again in 1932 (cause she wanted to look cool I guess). Became a huge celebrity in the following years. I will not touch on her unfortunate disappearance on her World Flight in 1937 so that is all your gonna get.
Second, Viva La Revolucion! So then people probably thought "Hmmm....where are we gonna put those metal birds when they are not flying? If a ship docks at a port...hmm...airp..airpo...Airport!" and so it was. Airport opened across the world big or small. Some airports connected people between continents, those are International Airports. The number of passengers who travelled globally increased until The Great Depression before it rised again again.
Third, Airplane Companies. The ones that make the planes. A few big ones stood above the crowd, for simplicity, we will cover the biggest and still biggest (although slightly debatable) airplane manufacturing company. Boeing. It first began in 1916 and built big boy planes. Boeing is also famous for their 787s shh...that's for later.
Fourth and Finally, airlines. The ones that carry you and me. Some of the oldest are
- KLM Royal Dutch Airlines - Netherlands (1907)
- Air France - France (1933)
- American Airlines - USA (1926)
- United Airlines - USA (1926)
- Delta Air Lines - USA (1925)
- Aeroflot Russian Airlines - Russia (1923)
Into Full Combat Mode: Second World War
This time, aviation played an even bigger role and this time, countries had fully-fledged air forces like the Britain's Royal Air Force (RAF) and the German's Luftwaffe.
Sometimes, battles would be fought only in the skies. And for the first time, having a bigger air force had you stand a higher chance at winning the war.
Battle of Britian: Planes in Dis-skies
Undoubtedly one of the biggest air stand-offs in history. The Battle of Britain (1940) was a aviation fight in the skies. And what a fight! It was the fight of strength. If the germans won, they would take control of british airspace. If the british won though, they would protect their airspace and put the English Channel firmly in their own hands. After around the clock firing, the battle ended resulting in a firm British victory.
The Blitz: Raining Explosives
Ah! The Blitz (1941). A German plan to bomb different parts of Britain. After the poor performance of the Battle of Britain, Hitler (if you have not notice, I am really trying to avoid his name) switched strategies to send in Luftwaffe at night, using the darkness as a cover. Smart and quite successful actually. But after the RAF noticed much of his new found strategies, the Blitz began to fall apart. After 8 months of damage, the Blitz campaign ended in 'German Strategic Failure'.
Travel Boom! (Part 1) - The Jet Age
Come fly with me, let's fly let's fly away (music plays). Enter the Jet Age. Or the pre-war days. Or the 'everyone is travelling' days. Airports were booming across the world. Airlines were booming in capacity! Everyone was (mostly) having a good time. It is during this period of time when planes became the most efficient way to travel but not yet the cheapest. It was also the beginning of everyone's favourite thing on a plane, In-Flight Entertainment 'IFE' first commenced in the 60s. So now, you could read 'Sherlock Holmes' while eating Fish & Chips while watching 'The Wizard of Oz' at the same time. Cool right! In the 1970s, Business Class was first introduced mysteriously by a few airline companies, the world semi-followed suit.
Travel Ban! - Soviet Airspace
While almost everywhere was everyone, there was one section of airspace that upon entering, could have your plane explode on sight. That was the Soviet Union Airspace. That is a simply saying 'Travel Into our Airspace = Dead'. So CEOs wondered "What if we went the other way around the world?" And so it was. Flights between Asia and Europe used the pacific ocean instead of dead plane's land.
This began the economic boom of Anchorage, Alaska. Anchorage became a common place for planes to stop and refuel before heading east and/or west. The town became a city and then a big city. Today though, Anchorage is not as big as its original status. When the Soviet Union fell, russian airspace became free for all again. So planes went the other other way round.
Travel Best! - Plane of the Future
The Concorde! The Plane of the Future. The Motherplane. The Sonic Boom! The Concorde is a turbojet plane built by the French and the British in 1965, it had its first flight in 1976. The plane could fly at the speed of sound and went between London and New York in 3.5 hours. To summarise, you could take a picture of the Statue of Liberty and have breakfast at a local Starbucks before hopping onto the Concorde to have a picture of yourself under the Big Ben and having high tea in a hotel before flying back to New York for dinner! Concorde was primarily used by British Airways and Air France as they flew to multiple destinations across the globe. It had revolutionary design making it literally 'slice' through the wind. However, the Concorde ended with a sudden stop. In 2003, the plane model was retired. But hope is coming, the BOOM supersonic plane is coming in 2023 so maybe you could ride a supersonic plane if you, like me, missed a shot to fly in a supersonic plane.
Travel Really BOOM! - 9/11 Disaster
September 11, 2001. A simple routine day for New Yorkers. Then, out of nowhere, a plane swoops into New York City flying at low altitude then, BOOM! the twin towers in flames. I never lived to see 9/11 caught on film. But boy have I seen. 2 planes crashed into the Twin Towers (World Trade Centre) of New York City, another crashed into the west of the Pentagon and the last crashed in Stonycreek Township after passengers got control of the plane. In total, around 2,800 people died. Osama bin Laden, is apparently the mastermind behind the war along with 19 hijackers. The aftermath of 9/11 saw the reconstruction of the World Trade Center, now as one big new tower (a clearer target for enemies) and with it the 9/11 memorial.
Aviation Loophole - Budget Airlines
The following year (2001 and 2002) saw air travel stall after 9/11. But from there travel numbers began to rise. And rise faster than it had ever before. But passengers wanted not comfort but efficiency. Enter the Budget Airline age. This was when budget airlines such as RyanAir and EasyJet boomed in popularity. Customers were sold. Budget airlines connected small cities and towns to major hubs. Air travel slowly resumed and the 2000s became the 'Golden Years of Flying' Budget Airlines found a loophole in aviation never found before. Major airlines wanted to cash-in but they mostly failed. Today, budget airline tickets can range between as cheap as $12 to around $500. Success and Successful!
Travel Really Boom! Again - COVID and The Survival Games
In 2019, a strain of coronavirus was found in Wuhan, China. One thing leads to another, and the world is in lockdown. The Aviation Industry was in shambles. Every airline even the budget ones were essentially fighting to survive a pandemic. Most airlines did the easy thing. Cease international flights and cease some but not all domestic flights. Today, all airlines including manufacturing ones are playing the waiting game. And all we have to do is play the waiting game aswell...
Farren's Opinion Corner
I guess everyone wants to travel. Those who last traveled in 2019 or maybe in 2018 want to travel and now. I want to travel but it's the waiting game that we have to play. First of, this idea has been on my mind for quite a while now. I don't really know how to phrase my Opinion Corner. I feel sad as of now because we can't travel but at least there is still light at the end of the tunnel. The aviation industry is opening at an excruciatingly slow pace. I guess we just have to wait...
By the way, I will not put up a Footnotes Article until the entire series ends. Connecting Us will have 3 parts to it. The two others are currently in the works. So just wait. Thanks for all the support!
Happy Reading!
Thanks for all the support for AndyHappyGuy by the way. He is at 3.28k subscribers as of this article. Let's get him to 5,000 subscribers by 2021.
-Farren and AndyHappyGuy
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