Practicality

After something is invented, like electricity (and I'm not going to get into the invented vs. discovered debate), one needs to figure out how to make it useful. The whole alternating current vs. direct current debate was all about just that. How could people best put electricity to use in their everyday lives? In terms of airplanes, the question was, could plane makers build planes that were strong enough, safe enough and fast enough to make sense for regular people to fly? For a couple decades, the answer to that question evolved from "no" to "kind of." World War I, for instance, saw wide deployment of aircraft to very little practical advantage. By World War II, it's fair to say that aircraft decided the war in both the European and Pacific theaters.

Planes by the late '30s were much more rugged than the feathery designs of the First World War, and the engines that powered them were not only far more powerful but far more reliable, to boot. The enabling technology---sorry, tube-and-rag fans---was the use of metal, most notably aluminum alloys, in the modern designs. This lightweight and super-strong material allowed planes to grow in size and capability, and these wartime gains transferred to peacetime aviation as the global conflict wound down.

Poster Plane For Practicality: Douglas DC-3.

Everyday Analog: Cellphones.

J BeckettWriter