Anniversary of first flight – Dec. 17, 2003
Exactly 100 years ago today: flying made possible.
This year, top speed for a commercial airliner: 1350mph
Next year, top speed for a commercial airliner: 650mph
Computers, the Net, telephones and air travel all make the world a smaller place, but exactly 100 years after the invention of flight that is no longer the case.
Moore’s law applied to computing and the spread of the net, arguably shows the world shrinking by half its size every year and a half.
For travel, the plane shrank the apparent size of the earth to one tenth over 50 years, it then shrank by half again over the next 20 years; 20 years later it shrank by another half with supersonic passenger travel. This year it didn’t merely stop shrinking, but it doubled in size.