The surprising ways that aviation created a better society
The surprising ways that aviation created a better society
Preserving world order, lessening the impact of war, furthering human connection and rewriting the edges of human ingenuity - humanity is better off because of aviation.
Analogous Insights is a perpetual series about leveraging learnings from the greatest human achievement of humankind - aviation - to make us and our world better. Whether you are an entrepreneur, brain surgeon or parent, there is much to learn. Written by a pilot and an aviation expert.
Imagine for a moment that your great ancestors walked the earth again for the first time in 50, 100, or even 150 years. What would be the first thing that you’d show them to capture the progress that has been made since their passing?
After introducing them to the generations that have followed, would it be to show them the marvel of technology, or the development of our cities with skyscrapers that touch the clouds? Or would it be the medical discoveries that have been made, some of which may have extended their lives by years?
Those are all worthy achievements, but if there is one that stands above all else it is aviation. Simply put, the best way to encapsulate human achievement would be to book a plane ticket and take your ancestors on a commercial flight.
As you flew you could tell them that everyday in America alone nearly three million humans move through the sky in cylindrical metal contraptions flying at up to 825 mph (faster than the speed of sound). They fly into and out of dense city cores with precision from as high as 42,000 feet, where the troposphere meets the stratosphere, and in temperatures that can straddle between -50 degrees celsius to +50 degrees celsius all in a single flight.
We could explain to them that these mechanical devices fly over oceans as large as 30% of the world’s surface area, and can land themselves (yes, hundreds of lives in the hands of a computer) in near-zero visibility conditions on the other side.
Most remarkably, despite facing the above situations and hazards across thousands of flights each day, there have been only two fatalities in America in the last 14 years on Part 121 (scheduled commercial transport) flights.1
While two is two too many, it is still a remarkable achievement out of billions of passenger trips during the same time frame.
This would be a remarkable and unexplainable achievement for nature to produce, similar to how the glacier rocks formed the rivers and lakes from millennia ago, or how babies go from in utero to small humans. But aviation is explainable, because it is a humankind created endeavour. And it is through these explanations that we can unlock potential for other industries, for ourselves, and to support in building the next greatest human invention.
As we will explore in this piece, aviation is the greatest representation of the potential of human ingenuity having overcome the most significant challenges known to humankind. Having made the world better, safer and more connected, aviation is also one of the greatest examples of humans working together globally that is on display today.
We will explore each of these themes, and hopefully you leave with a greater appreciation of why aviation is a key source of analogous insights.
1. Human ingenuity: surmounting every possible hurdle
The feat of aviation has managed to overcome a mind boggling amount of seemingly impossible forces acting against it to create a reliable and successful outcome.
Aviation operates within the laws of unforgiving physics, amongst the vastness and unpredictability of Mother Nature, at the hands of fallible and error-prone humans, with life or death consequences and in a spell-bindingly fast-paced arena.
It could be said that no other human feat confronts so many known challenges, a fraction of each which could kibosh the entire endeavour. The other human achievements that can be thought of - medicine, technology, engineering - do not blend all of these forces in such a consequential manner.
Nature could only make sound travel at about 760mph; humans have made aircraft travel faster.
Take Mother Nature for example.
A significant portion of training is focused on meteorology. In fact, most private pilots probably know enough about weather systems, storm cells, cold and warm fronts and other weather phenomenon to challenge your local weatherman to a debate.
This is because aviation operates within an envelope that is signed and sealed by Mother Nature. She has the power to - and in fact has - downed even the largest and most sophisticated aircraft, and is akin to an invisible (and sometimes very visible) second officer on each flight, ushering directions on where to go and what can and cannot be done.
In fact, as recently as two weeks ago from the the time of publication, Mother Nature has likely struck again potentially playing a leading role in the downing of Voepass Linhas Aéreas Flight 2283 in Brazil. I encourage you to watch Mentour Pilot’s analysis below.
EVERYTHING We Know About The Brazil Air Crash
Fog could have ended it all
One of the earliest challenges for aviation to surmount was fog, or as pilots refer to its insidious effects: low visibility. Now, instead of asking pilots to fly an aircraft with hundreds of people on it at 500mph, we are asking them to do without being able to see where they are going.
The risk of fog ending the plight and potential of aviation was very real. And without human ingenuity, the naturally occurring phenomenon of fog could have resulted in a ceiling placed on civil aviation limited to just fair weather flying (imagine having to lose a day of your vacation because the runway pavement was warmer than the surrounding air?!). Humans found a solve for that and the solution stood at the centre of technology, procedure and human judgement.
Notably, overcoming low visibility conditions led to the invention of the ILS (Instrument Landing System). This radio-based technology is arguably one of the greatest technological inventions that no one has heard about, paving the way for aviation to be as reliable as it is today, and likely having more lives in its hands each day than any other technological system.
Additionally, technology aside, learning about how pilots fly an aircraft with near-zero visibility just feet above the ground is also a perfect case study in how professionals work together. The aviation industry built the concept of Crew Resource Management (CRM). This exact concept could also help to improve your manufacturing line effectiveness, or decrease error rate in surgeries.
Flying could have been very risky. Imagine a reality where flying commercially had a similar death rate as the highways do in Ontario, Canada (400 deaths in 2023). There would be a lot of crossed fingers at the departures hall of the airport.
The human ingenuity needed to overcome the forces at play, and in this example just fog alone, shows the depth of innovation needed to make flight as reliable as it is today and unleashing discoveries across a variety of industries.
2. Human connection and productivity: aviation has created a better world
Our world would be decades-delayed if it were not for the earth-shrinking, border-busting, idea-spreading, people-connecting, business-building, customer-growing glue and fuel that is aviation.
Without aviation, some of the largest discoveries in medicine and technology would not have happened. It paved the way for space travel (just aviation on steroids), opening the doors to decades of intergalactic exploration.
Aviation has distributed medical breakthroughs across the world. It has extended critical care to those in need, and when the options of medical care have run out, aviation has ensured that countless people can see their loved ones just one more time before their time runs out.
It played a hand in validating and invalidating key theories including that of relativity. In recent times, it has ushered in globalization and likely has been a key enabler to preserving world order, allowing diplomats and politicians to forge relationships with adversaries and coordinate with their home government.
Aviation is not an industry, rather a force. A force for progress, for change.
With aviation comes progress and promise.
It is impossible to define where the beginning of aviation’s contribution to our world starts and ends, playing central roles in forming a developed society and driving the productivity of its citizens. It is a life blood, a current that runs deep through all economies, politics, and personal connections.
Remarkably, it is one of the last mostly un-politicized arenas left on planet earth, with vehemently opposed governments still open to sharing the skies and making aviation safer together. If an aircraft crashes anywhere around the world, the home country will issue a report and recommendations on how it could have been prevented and issued for all countries - including their enemies - to use to help save lives. In many cases the US-based NTSB or Canada-based TSB will be called upon to help around the world.2
If there is hope for humanity, it is aviation. If there is hope for world peace, the answer probably lies in how aviation has managed to achieve its place as being “Switzerland” and bringing the world together, literally and diplomatically.
In war and in peace
While helping to preserve peace, aviation also is credited with improving the outcomes of war. Aviation transitioned battle from a ground game to something more strategic and less deadly.
The use of helicopters in the Vietnam conflict was to change forever the American doctrine of tactical warfare. Helicopters proved to be multidimensional. They performed tactical airmobile missions, including the insertion and extraction of ground forces; rescued downed aviators (alone with Air Force fixed-wine aircraft); provided close air support with the UH-1 and AH-1 (Cobra) helicopter gunships; performed aerial reconnaissance; and undertook medical evacuation missions, known as "dust off' missions. Approximately 390,000 wounded American fighting men's lives were saved by medical evacuation helicopter crews during the Vietnam War.
Source: https://transportation.army.mil/history/studies/helicopter.html
And yes, there have been times when aviation has let us down. In moments of accidents, aviation teaches us the most. In fact, it could be said that the industry’s examination and fixation on what didn’t go right is greater than on what goes right.
We will not shy away from writing about aviation accidents as they always offer insights that are valuable to society.
3: Democratized benefits: a phenomenon for the masses
In today’s world it increasingly seems as if phenomenons are reserved for the rich. But not aviation.
It is not unwarranted to see that getting on a flight could have been just reserved for military use, or government use, or just for the wealthy.
Thankfully none of those are realities. Today flying commercial is universally available, relatively freely available for everyone with any budget. You can reliably book a flight and arrive on time without dependencies on weather. And it is essentially the safest form of travel on the planet.
Imagine if other industries were like aviation
Imagine if the automobile transportation only had two fatalities in the last 14 years, or if your start-up could be as redundant as an aircraft, or how the surgeons in an operating room could work together as well as the captain and First Officer in the Miracle on the Hudson did.
Imagine if day traders deployed the checklist methodology made famous by aviation to reduce error rate and make more money.
Imagine if parents could communicate with their children as clearly as ATC and pilots communicate. Ok, that might be a stretch.
As humans’ greatest achievement, aviation has much to teach us. And that is what these writings will focus on. Whether you are a doctor, a nurse, a student, an entrepreneur, a lawyer, a psychologist, or anything in-between, you will learn how what aviation already knows that can make you and your craft better.
Analagous Insights will feature some of the following topics:
Learning about human decision making will make you a better business person.
Learning about how planes are built will make you a better engineer.
Learning about the processes of safety will make you a better doctor or nurse.
Learning about how we can build the next greatest achievement of humankind by looking at the last.
Learn from one of the greatest achievements of mankind. And learn how we have to work everyday to keep it available for the public good. Ultimately, flying is a privilege, but the lessons it can teach society are not.
Our next post: deconstructing the most famous commercial aircraft glide in history, Air Transit Flight 236.
https://www.airlines.org/dataset/safety-record-of-u-s-air-carriers/
While generally the case, there have been exceptions where governments - including Russia - have withheld critical findings from air crash investigations due to political reasons.