Airplanes are Awesome: a Manifesto

Airplanes are Awesome. Like chocolate. Why? First off, they fly. Awesome.

Then, some do more. Like, fly faster than a speeding bullet. Or transport 500 people. Or carry the Space Shuttle. Like adding peanut butter to chocolate, this only makes planes more awesome.

This blog is a celebration of their awesome.

Now, lots of people write about planes. From the deep analysis to the gossip, the world already has enough commentary on planes and all that surrounds them. But these are “industry” blogs. They write for the writers of other airplane blogs, or the executives they’re reporting on, or the engineers making the decisions. Their writing isn’t impenetrable, but the authors aren’t trying to expand the club.

After years of diligent reading and late-night Wikipedia-ing, I’ve learned the awesome. And when something new happens, I can chortle with Mihai or Bernardo. But why no one else? These are great stories! This is underappreciated awesome here.

I won’t relate every bit of revealed information or industry updates. I just want to take the best bits, rip them out of the jargon and the lingo, and make them interesting and accessible. So, what’s interesting about these beasts of steel and birds of industry?

First, what they can do. I’ll talk about specific planes, and why each is cool. Names that might be familiar like 707, 737, 747, 767, 787 (that’s one pattern) and A320, A330, A350, A380 (another pattern). A wider range of more esoteric military planes (SR-71, F/A-18, YC-14, and longer alphabet soups). And I’ll talk about how planes relate to one another (and how they’re different).

Second, how people interact with planes. For most people, this means airlines and airports. How you board them. How you should board them. How airplanes work. How frequent flier programs function. We’ll talk some about how frequent fliers function (and a lot more about their dysfunction).

Third, how planes are made. Which, stay with me, is awesome in its own way. Why? Planes are the largest, most expensive item made on an assembly line. Making planes has its own drama and interest. From the small (how much can one piece matter? a lot) to the large (it’s cheaper to buy Frontier Airlines than one of its planes) to the geopolitical (Boeing vs. Airbus. We’ll get there).

So who’s my ideal reader?

• You don’t know much about planes

• You don’t particularly want to know much about planes

• But you do like hearing cool anecdotes and analyses. And if you have to learn a bit about planes to do so, well, that’ll do.

So if you already love planes, by all means, stick around and enjoy the superiority you feel at correcting my every misstep and foible. But if you don’t love planes? Well I’m jealous of you, cause you’re about to mainline the niftiest factoids about those that fly.