Living in the Age of Airplanes

After watching the IMAX film "Living in the Age of Airplanes", I gained a different perspective of flying and airplanes. This splendid film with stunning visuals brilliantly conveyed how airplanes have changed our lives. They not only enable people and goods to cross land and water with great speed but also act as bridges between cultures and ideas paving the way to a truly global world.

Photo courtesy: National Geographic

It is ironic that flying, which was once a fascination for humans, has now become a frustration. As we wait in the long lines in airports and try to sit through cross-continental flights, we tend to forget that before the invention of airplane, most of us would not have dared to travel so much. What once would have been considered a slow migration is now an instant vacation. Today, we hardly think before buying perishable goods from countries far away, rarely fancying how they would have arrived fresh at our local store without this fastest means of transport. It is even tougher to visualize the intangible effects of airplanes which can even touch lives of people who may never have flown. Air travel has facilitated international conventions where bright minds across the globe meet, share and work on new technology and products for the whole world. In our frenzy to "catch" a plane, we seldom slow down to grasp any of this.

Caught a plane!

The film ends with an emotional note showing families welcoming their loved ones and stating that the best place to fly to is home. How true! With our kids born across the globe from their grandparents, flying makes it possible to bring them close to the family. To these twenty-first century kids, flying is nothing but another means of transportation. Well, they started flying when they were just a few months old! Compared to the people who lived a century before them, they need not be the most daring adventurers to travel across oceans and continents. A look at these airplane tickets created by them shows much of their pretend play is about traveling around the world with ease.

From kids born in the age of airplanes

As I envision the connectivity brought out by the vast network of airplanes, I also sense how much of this we now take for granted. My mind slowly drifts back to the time when flying indeed was a fascination for me. Growing up in a time when air travel was considered a luxury, I had not flown in one till my father planned to take us on a plane from the state of Kerala to Goa in India. It was the first flying experience for most of us who went on that trip. It was not that we traveled across oceans to a place where only an airplane could take us. It was also not for saving time as our plane was detoured through another city making it a long trip. It was just for experiencing the thrill of flying. I can still remember that exhilarating feeling of seeing the land disappear during take-off and then seeing the cars and buildings become bigger and bigger as we landed. Like mentioned in the film, we could see more in one glance than what our ancestors could have seen in their entire lifetimes.

As time flew by, flying slowly became part of life. The appreciation waned away, paving way for annoyance and criticisms. But today, as I walk, in a country so far away from where I was born, along with our kids hand in hand with their visiting grandparents, I concur with the message in the film. We are indeed lucky to be living in this age of airplanes.