Advancements of Airplanes

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                Mather

Justin Mather

Mr. Mackechnie

English 11 Honors 4B

16 January 2006

Advancements with Airplanes

        The airplane turned out to be one of the greatest inventions ever made for the advancement of society and mankind. The idea of the first airplane came from the Wright brothers, Wilbur and Orville, and they were the first to successfully fly an aircraft. Anita Pavey wrote:

From a non-motorized glider featuring wing frames built of bent ash wood and covered in French sateen fabric to a craft made of state-of-the-art, exotic materials and powered by Harley-Davidson, Orville and Wilbur Wright's vision of flight has reached new heights at Utah State University.

Airplanes improved the society as the greatest technological advancement of America was due to their safety of the planes, quickness to get people from point “A” to point “B,” and the help it has brought and is bringing with American soldiers in war.

The Wright brothers worked hours on end to complete their innovation for the world. They had to try countless, tiring experiments, and many tests to see if they could fly and get the planes off the ground. The tests were run on the beach and on the dunes at Kitty Hawk, in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The first successful flight was completed December 17, 1903. The flight lasted about twelve seconds and only reached a peak of one hundred twenty feet, but it was a historic moment in time.

         Writer Alexandria Marks, claims “...flying continues to be one of the safest modes of transportation available in America…” (2). Research has been done and it shows that airplane crashes have been going down by the years since 1999 and leveling off with few crashes per year. There have been more fatalities among people traveling by automobiles, than airplanes. From small, corporate jets to large, commercial airplanes, there have been fewer deaths and accidents compared to those of automobiles across the world. “For the corporate jets, over the past five years there's been an average of nine accidents a year and four fatalities…” (Marks 2). 42,116 people were killed in an automobile accident in 2001, compared to 41,945 people killed in 2000. An average of one hundred and fourteen people die each day in car crashes in America. These facts alone prove that aircraft travel is overall safer for people than automobiles. Jeff Myers claims, "There's a very low accident record and a very strong safety record,"(4). The FAA, Federal Aviation Administration, is working to make aircraft travel perfect and accident-free. What makes airplane travel so convenient for people is the quickness of the flight. For example, flying across country takes approximately six hours to get there, rather than traveling for days by car.

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        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, ...

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