Watching one day's visitors soak up the details of the historic flying machines with their eyes, I wonder how many of them look past the hardware and think about the people who flew them to success. More important, perhaps, do they wonder about the branches not displayed, the machines and people who set the stage for history - but did not make it?
Take, for example, Hugh Robinson. Chances are good that you've never heard of him. Though he had a degree in mechanical engineering, he, like the Wright brothers, ran a bicycle shop in Neosho, Missouri. And like the Wrights, he was enamored with aviation, and designed and flew his own dirigible and monoplane. His aviation business didn't succeed, however, so he took a position with Glenn Curtiss as a demonstration pilot.
Robinson never earned the fame equal to another Curtiss demonstration pilot, Eugene Ely, the flamboyant aviator who gave birth to naval aviation by making the first takeoff and landing from a ship. But the cycle of Ely's historic flight might have been a successful up with a tragic down had it not been for Robinson, who devised the arresting gear system to stop the landing aircraft. The basic design is still used today on aircraft carriers.
Although Robinson never achieved aviation fame, he did have a long and personally satisfying career in and out of aviation. And perhaps he achieved more than some of his more well-known peers because he died of old age. (If you want to learn more about this truly amazing man, read Hugh Robinson, Pioneer Aviator, published by the University Press of Florida; 904/392-1351.)
As you tour the Air and Space Museum's galleries, it's clear that aviation activity and development boomed during times of war. But the branches telling of the post-war boom going bust are small.
One revealing twig is the story of an American Airlines pilot. During World War II he flew cargo around the world as a civilian flying for the military. After the war he left American to fly for a new, premier airline created early in the post-war boom by the Matson Line, a shipping company. When the boom went bust, so did the Matson airline - and the pilot's job. He couldn't find another job, but fortunately, he had a fallback skill that didn't involve flying but still kept him in aviation. The pilot's name? Ernest K. Gann. And his autobiography, Hostage to Fortune, speaks eloquently and honestly about the cycles of life, aviation and otherwise.
Currently, aviation's cycle is inching toward its crest, as it must after the low it endured little more than a decade ago. Manufacturers large and small are building airplanes, and the need for pilots of all persuasions has never been greater. Increasingly more people are learning to fly for pleasure or in pursuit of a profession, and the time to do so has never been better. There are places to go, things to do, new airplanes to fly, and the airlines are hiring like never before.
No one knows when the current cycle will peak, but it seems that it will continue to build for the foreseeable future. If you aspire to flight, either for pleasure or profession, don't delay, because the time has never been better. The best time to immerse yourself in any activity is before it peaks, because the boom carries you upward and gives you time to get established, which better prepares you to ride out the coming trough.
Yes, aviation's cycle will turn down one day. Exactly when is anybody's guess, but it's the nature of cycles to rise and fall. Worrying about how low it will go is pointless because no one can predict that. Waiting for the next high wastes time and lets valuable opportunities pass by. Besides, if no one can predict the depth of the lows, how can they score better on the highs?
What's important is to pursue your dreams and work toward success similar to that on display at the National Air and Space Museum. Of course, not everyone achieves that level of success. Not everyone can be Eugene Ely or the captain of a Boeing 747-400 flying international routes. Display space is limited in the museum. there's not enough room for everyone to be a record-setter, a hero, an innovator.
But aviation has always had room for people like Hugh Robinson, and as Ernie Gann learned, being a part of aviation doesn't always mean flying something. What's important is being involved, participating throughout the cycles, riding the highs and taking the lows in stride.
