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Alexandr Ivanchenkov

Petre

English IV

9 March 2017

How Safe is Aviation?

According to the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles, MIT and Berkeley University,

the odds that you will die in a car accident is 500 times greater than if you flew on a commercial

airline (Anxieties.com). General aviation has been around close to 100 years since 1914, and

evolved a great amount from very unsafe air travel to one of the safest modes of transportation.

Safe air travel has been accomplished by the evolution of modern technology and the rigorous

training of pilots, which includes strict stall and pre flight training, however many still feel

unsafe. With the very first commercial flight in 1914, which lasted 20 minutes across the Tampa

bay from St.Petersburg to Tampa (Sharp), is nothing compared to modern aircrafts such as the

airbus A380, who have a wingspan almost as big as a football field and a height equivalent to a 7

story tall building; as well as built to fly a 17 hour global flight carrying 800 passengers in

utmost comfort and luxury. The airbus A380 also includes 320 miles of wiring that powers the

modern equipment of the aircraft to ensure a safe flight.

Despite all the comfort, luxury and safety improvements over the years, people are still

afraid of flying and doubt the security and the safety of modern aviation. The origin of the fear

occurring after the events that played out on September 11, 2001 with the attacks on the World

Trade Center that spiked mass attention of the public to question how safe is air travel. In

addition to aging technology at the time where the aviation industry was falling behind
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technological developments that lead to questions such as; why do we not use more technology

in the cockpit? (100 years of aviation).

While the fear of heights or the even more irrational fear of a bird causing a plan to

perform an emergency landing are definitely possibilities, the positives that come with flying

outweigh those risks. Those who are afraid of flying are called white knuckle flyers ("Airline

Safety and Security Information."), have some of these common side effects, some are more

obvious some are not as obvious as the others. Those people who are afraid of flying will have

excessive sweating, rapid heartbeating, some cases the classical nausea where each airplane is

equipped with in flight nausea precautions such as a designated container for such events. In

1980 Boeing did a research study of all Americans to find out how many people are actually

afraid of flying. The research showed that 18.1% of US adults were afraid of flying. Another

12.6% of adults experienced anxiety when flying. To summarize roughly one third of the US

population was afraid of flying and those numbers rose to 50% after the 911 attacks. When

actually in reality flying is more safer than driving a car is what pilots say ("Airline Safety and

Security Information.").

Aviation has not been on earth forever, therefore to understand the level of safety modern

aviation has achieved, background information is needed. In Kitty Hawk N.C., on December 17,

1903, after 4 long years of research, the Wright brothers finally designed the very first airplane

with a wingspan of 120 ft (Prendergast). The Wright brothers plane was launched similarly to a

glider which is a light aircraft that is designed to fly for long periods without using an engine.

That first glider flew with a man for 12 seconds. This was the next big achievement was on

January 1, 1914. The very first passenger plane. After 11 years of improvements, influenced by
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the Wright brothers, Thomas Benoist designed a new plane. The next design was constructed to

take off and land on water. This fight was a success and the plane flew from St. Petersburg,

Florida to Tampa, Florida. The flight lasted for 23 minutes and was highly popular among

crowds. This sparked the first interest in the masses towards flying. This led to people exploring

the possibility of being a passenger on a flight (Taylor).

When WWI began aviation was yet to receive a mass technological advancement, with

the introduction of early modern technology. General commercial aviation rapidly came to a halt

with the need for more military aircrafts, and as a result, commercial passenger planes were not

designed anymore. During this era, airplanes received a massive upgrade in speed, design and

technology such as an radar. The advancements of the structure, speed, and technology from the

Wright brothers plane to those of WWI era have tremendously impacted our progression into

today's aircrafts, such as simple airplane controls that were added that are still used today

(Timeline History of Aviation).

With the war over, the government had an excess of military planes, capable of reaching

speeds of over 100 mph. This lead to the funding of the first US Aerial Postal Service. That was

designed to deliver mail from New York to Washington DC within 24 hours. Cross country

flights became possible and packages could be delivered within a three to five business day

timeline (Taylor; 100 Years of Aviation). The only thing holding back the speed of air delivery is

the obstacle of darkness. Airmail could only run during the daylight, when pilots could see. So

the next logical step in the advancement of aircrafts would be to be able to fly at night safely

without crashing. In 1921, beacons for aircrafts were introduced, allowing pilots to be able to fly
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during darker hours. This was able to speed up the aerial postal service, making it the most

efficient way to deliver in record time.

The advancements made with beacons were so influential that they are still used by

modern aircrafts today. Beacons, or as pilots call them IFR or VFR, send out signals to bases that

are placed across country. When a plane flies, it sends out a signal that the bases pick up. The

locate the plane by triangulation the plane's vertical and horizontal indicator. Allowing pilots to

fly at night, a technique very similar to echolocation used by nocturnal animals (Taylor).

With these new technologies, the skies were becoming increasingly crowded. The

government was put in a position to create air traffic laws for all aircrafts to create some order to

the current chaos in the skies. In 1925, the government established an aviation board which

established the standards for civil aviation (Taylor). The next milestone in aviation history was

created by a young pilot who sacrificed everything in order to fly.

On May 20, 1927 Charles Lindbergh set out on a journey across the Atlantic from New

York to Paris, France without any navigation. Today, a flight of this magnitude would take

roughly nine hours and an abundance of training and GPS equipment yet, Lindbergh crossed the

Atlantic with any navigation. The flight took 33 hours. Lindbergh's achievement sparked the

movement into commercial flight, which lead the way into the modern aircraft era (Taylor).

The first Boeing passenger airplanes could carry over 270 passengers (see illustration 1)

(100 Years of Aviation). A new leap in aviation technology resulted in the development of

pressurized cabins in 1941. This allowed planes to fly higher than ever before and had a huge

impact on wartime strategies and stealth. The development of the jet engines also allowed for

heights to be reached that were not possible before (Taylor; Williamson,).

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WWII alone had brought more technological advances to the playing field. The British

pioneered the use of radar, which allowed them to see upcoming planes at long distances and

locate them easily. This technology is still used today, but on a larger scale and by primarily air

traffic control in order to keep the airways clear and safe for all travelers. The radar is so strong

that it can locate the most smallest debris what the eye can not see in the airspace. It is crucial in

pilot training to have all the radio communications mastered in order to communicate with the air

traffic control, and prevent devastating accidents (Taylor; Wise).

In 1958, the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) was established. This was the

government's way to standardize all air travel. Today the FAA is the standard for all aviation and

all aircrafts must be pre approved by the FAA in order to fly. In addition, all maintenance must

also be approved by the FAA before any plane goes into repair. All pilots must undergo a

rigorous background check by the FAA to have the license to fly any commercial planes. Only

the highly trained pilots will be approved for that passengers safety. In the end, the FAA has the

final say in any and all airway concerns (Hersman; Vorren).

Around this era was the time of commercial aviation. Pilots were at its peak of

popularity, the life of a airline pilot was a dream for most people. Airports became more crowded

over time thus leading to a new question. How do you minimize the time it takes a person to go

from the curb unloading to check-in to the plane itself. Airports were huge and confusing so

engineers challenge was to make the airport more simpler and efficient to minimize precious

time. A good example is the JFK international airport in New York city terminal 5. It is not a big

terminal but processes 250 flights daily, that is a airplane every 10 minutes and delivers 20

million passengers annually safely to their desired destinations (Hadhazy).

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Another technological development was the creation of an organization similarly to the

FAA it was called the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). The EASA is primarily

responsible for the safety of the technological equipment that is used to operate the airplane (see

illustration 2). Each airplane has so many electronic instruments that help the pilot fly more

easily to keep the flight calm even in the roughest weather. This organizations purpose is to

achieve a safety level for all components of the airplane, to have one defect for every billion

hours of flight. That means if an airplane flies for 35 years in its lifetime then it will have a

breakdown every 100,000 aircrafts (Svitak). In the aircraft pilots are trained to work together,

both the captain and the first officer have the exact training so they know the same depth of

knowledge however the captain is more experienced in that aircraft. In every flight begins with a

pre flight checklist (see illustration 3) (Ranter). The purpose of the checklist is to ensure that

every component of the airplane is working properly before taking off. On a checklist some of

the things you will find are; making sure the engines are working properly, general appearance of

the plane so it does not have any dents dings or scuffs, all panel equipment is working and

communicating with the plane. Some of the most common reasons for why a plane crashes is the

simplest things, not paying close attention to the checklist and running thru it quickly (Vorren).

Another part of aviation safety is stalls. A stall is a condition in a aerodynamics and

aviation wherein the angle of attack increases beyond a certain point such as that the lift begins

to decrease (What Is a Stall ; AOPA). This is a very simple concept and every pilot is trained and

hammered with how to prevent a stall. Yet, it is the leading killer in all aviation. So why does

such a simple mistake is made even by the pros? Every aircraft is equipped with various stall

warning systems to prevent losing precious airspeed and falling to death when you are trying to
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pull up in front of a mountain such as; its is required by the FAA that you have a clear and

distinctive stall warning, in both straight and level flight as well as in turning flight. The

warnings needs to be visible, audible and needs to feel the pre stall buffet in the aircraft. Some

more modern aircrafts have different various warning tones and voices such as voice dictations

that tell the pilot what to do. All warning need to happen approximately five knots before the

actual stall itself (Stall Warning Systems).

For those people who dream of becoming a pilot, they are in luck. Actually, the rigorous

training that a pilot goes through, trains a pilot for every little accident imaginable (Vorren).

Those people are in luck because there is a mass pilot shortage right now in todays years. Since

the mandatory retirement age is 60. The baby boomer generation of the 50s are retiring and they

are the ones who occupied most positions of the airline industry, leaving a major pilot shortage

in the industry today. So right now is a excellent time to begin a very exciting career (Vorren).

First of all, every pilot starts out with his private pilot's license, usually this is achieved by the

local flight school because it is significantly cheaper than going to a big mass flight school and

getting it there. Required in this step is, being 17 or older, five hours of cross country flight time,

solo flight with an operating tower control, instrumental training and flight and all these steps

repeated at night. The second step would be to get the instrument rating in a advanced aircraft

more commonly known as twin engine airplane. This phase includes training to fly by

instruments solely located in the aircraft, flying without ever looking outside the window (see

illustration 2). The training is not over yet. The next certificate would be to get a commercial

pilot's licence. A commercial pilot can be used for certain types of operation, such as banner

towing, agricultural applications, and photography, and can be used for instructing if she or he
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holds a flight instructor certificate (Vorren). One more step to achieve the goal of becoming a

pilot if he/she desires to fly in a airline. To achieve the ATP Airline Transport License, the

minimum pilot experience is 1,500 hours of flight time, 500 hours of cross-country flight time,

100 hours of night flight time, and 75 hours instrument operations time. Along with these all

requirements listed above each license has an oral exam with a FAA certified instructor and a

standardized test dependent on which license the pilot gets depends on the difficulty level of the

exam. All these certificate licenses can be achieved at a flight school but it is not cheap to

become a pilot the the minimum amount of money out of pocket ranges from the bare minimum

if the pilot passes with everything perfect and no mistakes or failures is $50,000. Depends how

the training will go and which route the aspiring pilot will take prices can range to as much as in

the hundreds of thousands of dollars. But whoever passes through this rigorous training is trained

for the most unexpected as all pilots are masters of the sky (Vorren;Become a Licensed

Commercial Pilot: Step-by-Step Career Guide).

All in all being a pilot is a very difficult task with every flight pilots make, achieving a

level of safety that is unimaginable making flying safer than driving a car. This ensures flight

experience that is enjoyable for the passengers. With the help of all these components from the

very beginning of aviation roughly 100 years ago the evolution of technology, pilot training, stall

training and awareness helped modern day aviation achieve the excellence of pilot training and

safe air travel. Achieving the odds that you will die in a car accident is 500 times greater than if

you flew on a commercial airline (How safe is commercial flight).

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Illustration 1 (100 Years of Aviation) Illustration 2: (100 years of aviation) (below)

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Illustration 3: (Hersman)
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Works Cited

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"How safe is comercial flight" Anxieties.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Feb. 2017.

"AOPA " Stall/Spin. N.p., 04 Mar. 2016. Web. 17 Feb. 2017.

Flight: 100 Years of Aviation. New York: DK Pub., 2004. Print.

Garvey, William. "An Electrifying Cessna." Aviation Week & Space Technology 172.44 (2010):

47. MAS Complete. Web. 15 Feb. 2017

Hadhazy, Adam. "How to Build a Smarter Airport Terminal." Popular Mechanics. N.p., 30 Jan.

2015. Web. 24 Feb. 2017.

Hersman, Deborah A. O. "Is The Federal Aviation Administration Making Sufficient Progress

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Prendergast, Curtis. The First Aviators. Alexandria, VA: Time-Life, 1981. Print.

Ranter, Harro. "Aviation Safety Network Airline Safety Passenger Safety Passenger Safety

Information." Aviation Safety Network. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Feb. 2017.

Sharp, Tim. "Worlds First Commercial Airline | The Greatest Moments in Flight." N.p., 19 July

2012. Web. 3 Mar. 2017.

Stall Warning Systems." Stall Warning Systems - SKYbrary Aviation Safety. N.p., n.d. Web. 20

Feb. 2017.

Stall Warning Systems." Stall Warning Systems - SKYbrary Aviation Safety. N.p., n.d. Web. 20

Feb. 2017.
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Study.com. Become a Licensed Commercial Pilot: Step-by-Step Career Guide

N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Feb. 2017.

Svitak, Amy. "Galileo Faces Safety, Cost Barriers To Civil Aviation Market." Aviation Week

& Space Technology 177.5 (2015): 1. MAS Complete. Web. 14 Feb. 2017

Taylor, John William Ransom. The Lore of Flight. New York, NY: Barnes & Noble, 1996.

Print.timeline history of Aviation. Ann Arbor, MI: Lowe & B. Hould, 2001. Print.

Vorren, William. "Mentor Interview." Interview by Sasha Ivanchenkov. 1 Mar. 2017: n. pag.

Print.

Williamson, Katherine S. The Golden Age of Aviation. New York: Works Cited

Wise, Jeff. "The Tech That Makes New Airplanes and Runways Safer." Popular Mechanics.

N.p., 02 Feb. 2015. Web. 24 Feb. 2017.

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