MAGNANIMITY
Hard to imagine that another year has
come and gone. Last year at this time, we were getting
ready to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the
first flight by the Wright brothers. This issue
FLY-LOW celebrates the life of one of their
competitors. They may have flown the first flight, but
Glenn Curtiss took the propeller and ran with it. His
innovations were astronomical. Most of his inventions he
shared with the world, unlike the Wright brothers who
fought to preserve their patents on all their flying
products and ideas.
Much has been written about the
Wrights, not much about Glenn H. Curtiss, by comparison.
There is a museum that celebrates his life, located in
Hammondsport, NY. A link from our website will get you to
their site. Thanks to his accomplishments, Curtiss
became known as the “Father of Naval Aviation”. Perhaps,
we will spark some curiosity in you to go to your public
library and discover more about this giant of an aviation
genius.
FRONTIER CHALLENGED
We now have another civilian
astronaut. The X-Prize has been taken. Burt Rutan has
another feather in his hat, as does all of general
aviation. What you are about to see is the ability of the
public to take a space ship ride into outer space and
back. All of this is to be done without the blessing or
ability of NASA. The cost of that ride will not be
$20,000,000, as Tito paid the Russians. It is more likely
to be around $100,000.00. That brings it into the grasp
of some of the rich and famous. It still leaves me out!
Life has risk… no matter if you fly a
plane, drive a car, or ride a motorcycle. These are
risks, some might consider them acceptable. If one loves
the freedom of wind blowing in one’s hair as an ‘easy
rider’, then one must accept the risk of riding a two
wheel motorcycle among five thousand pound SUVs going
eighty miles per hour. If one wants to fly into outer
space, one must accept the risk. There will be those who
die when frontiers are challenged. There is no question
that all the risk management items should be in place, and
just as the Space Shuttle disintegrated, those items will
often fail resulting in death. We hope that the general
aviation outer space flights will have closely scrutinized
risk management programs.
I am sure that there are rules and
regulations now being formulated to cover general aviation
space travel…. Ya gotta have those FARs.
THANKSGIVING DAY
We at FLY-LOW Publications
hope that you and your family will enjoy one of the most
satisfying Thanksgiving Holidays you have ever
experienced. Being able to live in this FREE country,
where one can write and say things with the FREEDOM that
exists in no other country, is certainly a reason to give
thanks. I only hope we regain all of the FREEDOMS lost
since 9/11/2001 in the future. |
