Another reason that airplanes turned into being the dominating traveling tool and the most genius of inventions was due to the speed and quickness it took people places. As time progressed, the faster planes became, made travels across the country faster and more comfortable to withstand. “Speed is still the most important, perhaps the only, advantage that aircraft has over other methods of travel…” (Wragg 1). David Wragg’s, Speed in the Air shows the benefits of aviation travel and what the future holds in store for aircraft travel. Planes were made to fly for over 60,000 miles before having to refuel, and fly at speeds over 600 mph. Commercial sized carrier planes are mostly used to carry tons of materials and goods to about 100 tons across seas and transports passengers close to 15,000,000 people a week, like British Airways in 1972. A good point was made in the book, how people’s impatience brings about the need of speed of airplanes, “Speed therefore has not always been an end in itself. It is, of course, born of man’s impatience and curiosity, but in the end the outcome has been of commercial military importance… during World War 2” (Wragg 180). A growth in aircraft size and carrying capacity helped bring about faster planes and greater speeds. The speed of airplanes depended on the type of material they were built of. The planes today made of metal, fly faster than those made by the Wright brothers which were made by wood. Commercial planes helped introduce the idea for giant carriers for World War II.
Finally, airplanes have turned out to be the greatest technological advancement in society due to the help it brings with fighting in war. Since World War 2, planes have been used to take soldiers back and forth, to transport supplies and weapons for the soldiers, and to attack the enemy. For example, the first Atomic bomb was dropped by a plane named Enola Gay, during World War II, annihilating Japan and its people. “On that fateful day, the plane's crew dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima, Japan. The explosion instantly killed more than 140,000 people. Many others died later. The dropping of the first atomic bomb led to Japan's surrender in World War II (1939-1945)” (“Return of the Enola Gay” 7). Wiping out the big cities of Japan, the United States won the war and got retaliation for Pearl Harbor. This was a huge step for the aircraft industry, in that people realized what planes were really capable of doing. The Enola Gay was never flown again for that purpose but people know what planes were used and made for. The devastation created a stir of emotions on whether or not planes would be used for all of the wrong reasons and not for the good of transportation, so there was a controversy over airplane use. Even with the controversy people realized that military threat with planes was the best weapon for war we had. “Since the summer of 1950, US airpower has remained one of the dominant military forces…” (Bechtol 75). The United States ran the world for time and still does with their superior weaponry and air tactics with their fighting planes for war, which came from the starting development of the Wright brothers.
Throughout the sandy banks of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, tests were run and inventions were born. The airplane was and still is the greatest technological advancement we have as humans on this earth. The innovation to society of two men, Orville and Wilbur Wright, completed the world and set the world into a new dimension of travel and exploration. The airplane, single handedly took over the world as an influence for travel, and fighting. Since the one, world changing day, December 17, 1903, the world has been obsessed with upgrading and evolving the ordinary airplane into something powerful for the military, or something enormous for commercial aircraft travel. The historical twelve second flight set a mark for the United States as a superior country evolving with the greatest technological advancement ever. No one explains it better than Andrew Curry:
Today, we can fly cross-country, even around the world, on a whim. We take it for granted today, but the Wrights' 1903 flier, nearly 700 pounds of wood, wire, muslin cloth, a sputtering homemade engine, and hand-carved propellers, may be one of the most important inventions in history. From trade to travel, war to weather, aviation has transformed civilization--and captured the human imagination like no other accomplishment. (38)
As illustrated, the world was transformed with the invention of the airplane, and the world wouldn’t be where it is today without the invention of the airplane.
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