Flying 4
After not flying with an airline for more than three years, it now felt very different.
The big winged aluminum tube fitted with engines that barely clear the ground seemed like it has evolved into an equilibrium state from where further evolution is only possible through a leap.
The takeoff seemed brutal, and knowing that on the entire flight several tons of kerosene are burnt just added to that feeling.
It felt like a transsonic metal dragon, swallowing and compressing vast amounts of air and breathing out fire. Everything about it felt unsafe and it felt like a miracle that modern regulations have managed to still make it incredibly safe.
And it felt like this is a symbol of our time – fast travel, using vast amounts of energy that we are not really supposed to set free.
Somehow we know what we're doing and somehow we don't.
I wonder how these airplanes would look if women had equally participated in their design in the past decades. Maybe flying with them would be more expensive, slower, but also more enjoyable.