The last century of human achievement has been marked by astounding progress in medicine, computers, power, and hundreds of other fields. Of these, the field of aerospace has grown and developed more than any other.

Aerospace is the combination of aviation (flight within the earth’s atmosphere) and space flight (flight beyond the protection of the atmosphere). The two fields are so unavoidably linked that the companies that manufacture aircraft also manufacture spacecraft. These companies comprise one of the largest contributors to the world economy: the aerospace industry.

Aerospace has made the world a smaller place by decreasing our travel times between nations. Only fifty years ago it took weeks on a ocean voyager to travel to other continents; today that same trip may take only half a day in an airplane. It is now possible to fight forest fires from the air, rain death from bombers, drop food packages into remote, famine-stricken areas, and travel from California to New Jersey to visit your Aunt Martha for Thanksgiving dinner.

The development of the aerospace field is fascinating. Of course, it is the obligation of all teachers to present their unique field as “the most important or fascinating,” but as a part-time professor and a full-time airline pilot, I can say that aviation is truly as exciting as your textbook says it is. 

But what did flying mean to the many people who made flight possible? What did flying mean to our ancestors watching the flight of birds? What does flying mean to us?