Wheels Up!



110 years ago - Orville and Wilbur Wright made their first flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

I wonder if they would recognize how their work shrunk the world so every place is no more than a day's travel from any spot on the globe.

Maybe that's not quite accurate - you can get from airport to any airport within 24 hours - it could take some more time depending on your ability and mode of ground travel.

Jetting around the world is a tremendous gift.  Think about our grandparents, a move for them from Europe to North America was a life changing event.  Now, it's a twelve hour flight and with the right amount of cash, you can make a return trip.

Imagine children heading west across the plains.  Months and months of horse-drawn travel at 20 miles a day would provide great appreciation for traveling at 500 miles an hour. 

Likely, that blows their minds just contemplating it.

You can drive a car 1,000 miles in a day if you really push it.  All the better to be seated in a flying metal tube.

In that 110 years, we went from no seat, to open cockpits, to small planes, jet aircraft, and jumbo jetliners.  A trip by air meant the family dressed up for the occasion, dined in the air, and were reunited with their luggage at the end of the flight.

Now, it seems most travelers are in jeans, if not sweatpants, brown bag or fast food lunches in hand (purchased after passing security) and some personal music device so you can zone out and ignore the passing creation below.

Wilbur and Orville would be amazed - and probably interested in getting on Virgin Air's next plane into space.

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