Tuesday 8 August 2017

Ode to Aviation


Aviation is only a century old and yet we can hardly imagine the world being without it. The evolution in technology and scale of deployment has been quite amazing. Even if today, novelties are not so easily  accepted anymore unless they have proven their safety and reliability, a lot of novelties are being worked out today and I will highlight the ones that relate to my own work in satellite communication and navigation. This is an overview blog and you would need to surf through the hyperlinks to get a complete picture.
There are a number of problems with aviation. We fly too much and pay too little. The reason is that the passenger doesn’t pay the environmental cost. The cost is mainly paid by the people living in the vicinity of the airports and to a lesser extent, by the tax payer. More about this in my Dutch blog: Waarom vliegen duur moet zijn.  Why flying needs to be expensive.

We have become so used of flying that we hardly look up when a plane passes over. I remember how much I liked spotting planes at the airport while waiting for a family member to arrive. The beauty of planes still fulfils me with awe and wonder. I refer to my earlier blog: Gute Technik ist immer schön.

Picture 1: taken at Air and Space Smithsonian Museum Washington, DC (August 1986)
Picture 2: taken at Belem, Lisbon: Fairey 17, first plane to cross South Atlantic Ocean (August 2016)



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