one digital life

Liftoff to landing in 66 years

The Wright Brothers took their very first flight in 1903. Neil Armstrong walked on the moon in 1969.

I was reminded of these two facts yesterday, and I had never really done the math. That’s just 66 years between those events.

Within a single lifetime, we went from a civilization that couldn’t leave the ground, to one that could leave our planet in a spaceship. That’s just mind-blowing!

8 Comments to Liftoff to landing in 66 years

1. wow, great work
Kit on August 26th, 2006

2. Actually Alberto Santos Dumont (a Brazillian) made the first flight in an airplane.
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santos_Dumont
   Some North-Americans usually have trouble dealing with this, but that’s true, a Brazillian made the first plane, not a North American.
Daniel on August 26th, 2006

3. Thanks for the link, Daniel. I had never heard of Alberto Santos Dumont. After browsing through a few articles over at Wikipedia, it looks like there is some controversy on who has the rightful title of first to fly. It seems to partially depend on the definition of flight.

   Regardless of what individual or country gets credit, I’m just amazed that we (humans) mangaed to go from flightless to moon walking in such a short amount of time. Yay for us!
paul on August 26th, 2006

4. Definetly, I have a teacher at “metodology of search” (I don’t know the name of the subject in english, but I study Math) that says that “we must not be amazed by the technological things/gadgets and inventions, but we should be amazed how those people managed to build it.” (shtg like it, too much alcoholl in my brain to translate it right now)
Daniel on August 27th, 2006

5. It took 66 Year from leaving the ground to leaving the planet (to reach the moon just a lightsecond away). And then it took another 40 years with flying close circles around that planet.
   From my point of view “we must not be amazed by the technological things/gadgets and inventions, but how mankind uses it”.
ninjaturkey on August 27th, 2006

6. paul, my grandparents who came over from eastern europe said the same thing, over and over, on almost every visit. they’d tell stories of going to market on horseback,or at least with a horse-drawn cart.

   my question is: if kennedy promised “a man on the moon by the end of the decade”, why can’t we find another energy source other than oil in 10 years?

   that’s only 1/6th of the time from flight to space travel. maybe there’s no money in it.
dave on August 27th, 2006

7. Actually Daniel, You are wrong, The first person to fly was Gustave A. Whitehead. He flew about two months before your brazilian guy. So it was neither a South American, or North American, but rather a german.
Eric on February 18th, 2007

8. Neat!
   The important thing actually is that we can fly nowadays, this week I was in Paris and saw where Santos Dummond lived when he made his “creations” and “discoveries”, and I was there because they (all 3 + Leonardo Da Vinci) dreamed of flying!
Daniel on February 18th, 2007

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