Sailing By - Three Perspectives

John Glenn and capsule simulator

Manned flight has continues to come a long ways since Kitty Hawk. Not all that long after the first airplane flight, Naval Aviation was born - celebrating its first 100 years this year. Fifty years after that - fifty years ago this week on February 20th, John Glenn was the first American to orbit the earth. This morning there was a nice essay on the NPR Weekend Edition program. I remember when I first saw the Friendship 7 capsule at the Smithsonian, how the skin of the craft looked just like the corrugated metal roofing on my parents' barn - I was shocked by how vulnerable the vehicle that held Glenn and carried him into space seemed to be, but then he was used to being suspended in air with a piece of glass between him and the sky above.

High altitude flight

Our Navy pilot in training sent us a link showing the perspective of a back seat Naval Flight Officer in an F/A 18 Hornet - based out of Naval Air Station Whidbey Island. I was struck by how crew is perched under a clear canopy with space virtually surrounding them. I remember seeing what must have been an Air Force fighter jet twenty-five years ago at the Fresno County Fair - the cockpit seemed to be a small capsule mounted on a jet engine.

A Wing Suit Suite

While watching the video above, I saw another link in the right-side selection column for other videos. It gives another perspective of a manned-projectile traveling through the air - sans the jet engine, wings, and a canopy. Just a man in a helmet, the sky above, and the ground below. Interesting how the same sound track (1) was used by both film makers. I know the naval aviator would never be allowed to fly like the fellow in this video - nor would this base jumping aeronaut likely want to join the Navy. But all of them have a bent of defiance to gravity that would keep them attached to the earth - the green land below. (2) (3) (4)
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(1) A solo project of Aaron Bruno, AWOLNATION began as a creative outlet for the songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Bruno, who had been a member of Home Town Hero and Under the Influence of Giants, needed a break from the collaborative process and hoped to find a place for some of his songs that didn't fit with his other bands. With AWOLNATION, Bruno built a kind of creative free-for-all for himself, allowing him to blend genres as he wanted in a style reminiscent of Beck, blending live instrumentation, electronic elements, and slick production into an electro-pop hybrid that draws from the whole of pop music. In 2011, AWOLNATION made its full-length debut, releasing Megalithic Symphony on Red Bull Records. ~ Gregory Heaney, Rovi

A live version of Sail by AWOLNATION.

(2) I personally like the peace and quiet that can be experienced on mountains, attached to the earth below, as the wind, and sky, and stars pass overhead, above the fixed landscapes. 

(3) I check on-line today (the next day, February 19) for any recent news about Jeb Corliss, and found out he crashed in South Africa on January 17, and broke his leg. He has been in good spirits - follow his Facebook post here.

(4) Regardless of the platform carrying the camera, the camera can do wonders - GoPro products, not all that expensive, with nice results. A GoPro was used for both the F/A 18 and Wing Suit videos. I am sure if GoPro were around in 1962, their technology would have been with the first astronaut to circle the earth.