By I’ve had this picture of b52 bombers hanging in my kitchen for years. My husband and I still have it. I keep referring to it in talks with the kids as an example of something we can’t do. A good example of not doing something? Not doing something that you’re afraid of or ashamed of.
I think the concept of these bombers is pretty great when you think about it. The fact is that in the real world, most people aren’t afraid of flying bombers. The vast majority of air traffic is carried out by the Boeing 747. That’s good because Boeing is a company that is big enough to make their own airliners. Also, it’s not like you’re afraid or ashamed of them because you’re not going to fly them. You’re just not going to fly them anyway.
The idea that air travel is so scary because of the fear and the shame is actually pretty accurate. In reality, I think it is far more dangerous than a 747. Planes are actually quite safe, and the reason they are relatively safe is because they are not designed to be as deadly as the 747s of yore. It’s just not the same.
Yes, it’s true that planes are not very safe and the danger of flying them is very real. But air travel is a very different beast. There are a lot of things we do in our lives and we are not going to be as aware of as we are of the things going on around us. If you are on an airplane and something goes wrong, you don’t have to worry about the safety of the plane. You just have to worry about the safety of you.
Planes are much safer than a lot of other things in our lives. We can fly to London and back in a day. We can be in a crowded building with a lot of people and not worry about the safety of the people around us. We can go to a beach and not worry that we might get wet or sick. We can ride our bikes in a park without worrying about the safety of someone else on the bike next to us.
When it comes to flying to London or Boston you can’t even count on a plane to have a good safety record. The best flight record I’ve ever seen was in 1993 when a Boeing 727 had a flight from Miami to New York that lasted 5 hours and 20 minutes. It was the only flight in history to not have a malfunction during its 5 hours and 20 minutes of flight.
What’s going on? If you are going to go to a school or a college or a university and a guy who is wearing sneakers is taking a road bike up to the bridge, are you going to be going to a school or college? I mean, that’s not a valid question.
A flight to New York would not be a valid question. A flight to New York would be a valid question. Also, it helps if it is a long flight and that is exactly what it is: a long flight.
In the age of YouTube, it’s always nice to see a video of a plane flying through a beautiful landscape. Especially one with a video camera. But for the most part, we are treated to footage of the B52 bombers from the 60s and 70s, which were the first jet bombers to be given the ability to fly on the ground. They were the first planes with their engines on the ground, so that they could get really low and make really loud, terrifying sounds.
Sure it is a long flight, but it’s also one of the most interesting ones you can ever experience. It’s not just the sheer power of the engines, it’s the fact that they are in the sky. Imagine a plane with no engines, but instead, a small device attached to the wing that was powered by a jet engine. Or imagine a plane with a small engine that was mounted on the fuselage but also had an engine on the tail.
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