The Miracle of Flight

It’s amazing how far aircraft and air travel have come in just over a hundred years.

We’ve come from the Wright Brothers first powered flight in 1903, where their aircraft averaged a speed of a little over six miles per hour, covered a distance of only 120 feet, at an altitude of ten feet; to a global airline industry that generates about $640 billion US each year. In the United States, an estimated 2 million passengers board more than 30,000 flights daily, and global air traffic is expected to double by the year 2030.

FUN FACTOIDS

Hey look a flock of people…
At any given point in the day there are more than 9,000 aircraft airborne carrying over one-million people.

Sprechen Sie Deutsch? Nein!
English is the international language of flight. All commercial pilots and aircraft controllers are required to speak English.

This goes where?
An Airbus A380 has about 4 million parts.

Don’t dawdle!
The FAA requires that all airplanes be capable of being evacuated in 90 seconds.

Climate change is making for a rougher ride
Increases in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are increasing the incidents of airplane turbulence.

But can it fit on my Civic?
Each engine on a Boeing 747 weighs almost 9,500 pounds (4,300 kg), and cost about $8 million USD.

Feeling parched?
That dry aircraft cabin air saps the water from your body, syphoning off about 8 ounces an hour; roughly a two-litre bottle during a 10-hour long haul flight. The pressurized air in the cabin is kept below 20% humidity — just about the average humidity of the Sahara desert.

Latex gloves anyone?
According to one study, microbiologists found that seat back tray tables had more than 5 times the number of bacterial forming units, compared to an aircrafts’ toilet flush button. Additionally, airline blankets are washed just every 5–30 days. Yet another reason to fly with Worldwide. (WCI’s charter flights are scrupulously cleaned and detailed and not to be confused with standard airline practices!)

Forget the shrimps on the barbie!
The second oldest airline in the world Qantas, formed in 1920, also has the best safety record with no fatal crashes in their history.

The world’s most popular aircraft?
Not the Boeing 747, which has enjoyed a fifty year production run, and delivered more than fifteen-hundred aircraft since 1969; but the Cessna 172 Skyhawk. It’s been in production since 1955 with more than 44,000 built.