1. Cabin pressurization — The average passenger doesn’t think about cabin pressurization until their yellow safety masks fall from the ceiling, but the reality is that if the technology hadn’t been developed during WWII, we wouldn’t be able to fly much above 10,000 feet.
2. Black Box — The black box was invented in the mid-1950s, and not only helps investigators learn why a plane crashed, but how that information can be applied to other aircraft to prevent a repeat.
3. The Concorde — It never delivered on its commercial promise, and it was an environmental bad boy, but who can deny that breaking the sound barrier aboard a commercial aircraft is cool. And have you ever seen a more beautiful plane?
4. Radar — Sure, the airlines are dying to replace it with GPS technology, but for decades it’s been radar that helps air traffic controllers locate and track planes up to 200 miles away. Would our modern air traffic infrastructure exist without it? Probably not.
5. The jumbo jet — Whether you think they’re graceful or ungainly, you can’t deny that jumbo jets have changed the face of commercial aviation. The economies of scale provided by a 400-seat airliner meant airlines could offer cheap tickets that made it possible for the masses to fly.
6. The hub and spoke system — People hate, hate, hate having to make stopovers at jam packed airports controlled by a single airline. Yeah, they’re expensive to fly into and delay prone, but hub airports are a big part of the reason that you have 20 flights a day to choose from when flying between most large American cities.
7. The Very Light Jet (VLJ) — It’s been a tough road for the VLJ, with manufacturers suffering production problems and customers going out of business, but that doesn’t diminish the allure of a 37 foot, 3,500 pound plane designed to carry four to six passengers on short hops that would otherwise require a car ride.
8. Winglets — Here’s another one that most of us don’t think about. The small upward-pointing extensions at the tips of aircraft wings reduce drag, improve climb performance, increase range, and make flight more fuel efficient. With oil at over $100 a barrel, no wonder most airlines have added winglets across their fleets.
9. The flying wing — Yves Rossy keeps breaking records and defying expectations with his 8-foot-diameter, carbon composite flying wing. Last week he made a successful 13 minute, 125 mph trip across the English Channel.
10. Stealth aircraft — What’s cooler than a plane that can outsmart radar? Because the surfaces of a stealth are designed to absorb radio waves or reflect them away from the receiver, stealth planes can sneak in and sneak out undetected.
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