A Composition A Week - Flight

I realised that I've been putting up works only by our primary school pupils.


To address the imbalance, here is an essay by one of our secondary school pupils.

FLIGHT

For years, Man dreamt of one day when he is able to throw off the shackles that bind him to the ground, to be able to be as free as the birds in the sky, to be able to make the sky their limit. Since time immemorial, Man was only able to dream, to gaze wistfully at the creatures of the sky as they soar through the air effortlessly, hoping that one day, he might be able to take his place in the sky.

With the birth of civilisation and Man settling down instead of constantly being on the move, a myriad of flying instruments flourished as Man tried to crack the code that binds us to the ground. From kites and hot air balloons in China to gliders in Europe, Man was able to send objects into the air for a period of time, but realising his dreams of sustained flight and putting men in the skies still eluded him.

A sample of da Vinci's flying machine

By the 15^th century, Renaissance in Europe was in full bloom, with art and science flourishing throughout the continent. Leonardo da Vinci, a visionary and artist, dreamt of great things, designing multiple blueprints for a submarine, a tank, a parachute and many more. But none was more intriguing than his blueprints for a flying machine. Many inventors after da Vinci tried and failed to get larger objects airborne in sustained flight but most ended in failure.

As the Industrial Age drew near, Man had not given up on his aspiration to be airborne. With new technological discoveries, Man was ever closer in having his dream take flight. In the late 18^th century, the Montgolfier brothers succeeded in placing humans in the sky via a tethered hot air balloon. It was a success, now that Man is able to travel by air, albeit slowly. With the invention of the steam engine, aviation was revolutionised as Man was then able to travel against the air currents at a faster speed. Known as airships, they were regarded as the cutting edge of technology, similar to how we regard Google’s project on building a self-steering car today. These balloons were used in the American Civil War as observation posts, and subsequently used in the Franco-Prussian War to evacuate French politicians from Paris before its capture. Though the balloons were ground-breaking technology, they were extremely fragile and slow, so Man went back to the drawing board once more.

Zepplins - Germany's war machines

Multiple inventions were made to create a faster and safer substitute for balloons throughout the 19^th century but none were as famous as the Wright brothers’ invention of the world’s first sustained flight aircraft powered by a control engine in the early 1900s. The new technology was primitive, and Man still preferred to travel by air via large airships. By the time World War One erupted in Europe, war was taken, for the first time, to the air. Armed airships, known as Zeppelins, bombed London, and observed troop movements. The race to take the airships down started. Both the Allies and the Central Powers drew on the Wright brothers’ new technology, designing the world’s first fighter and bomber aircraft. By the time the war ended, flight had taken a whole new shape. The aircraft technology had advanced rapidly in the short five years of war, at a pace which astounded many. The technological advancements made to the aircraft should have required at least twenty years by the pace they were going, but the war sped it up by four times.

The Hindenburg Disaster -
the aviation equivalent of the Titanic

After the war, the aircraft technology was turned over for civilian use. Commercial flights were available, but they were dwarfed by airships. However, airship travel was slow and dangerous, and a large scale accident involving a certain Hindenberg airship spelled doom for airship travel forever. By the 1930s, the world was once again gearing up for war as Nazi aggression in Europe increases. Primitive biplanes made of paper and wood soon evolved into a much more advanced form. With the outbreak of World War Two, aviation technology once again sped up as nations competed to design and build more advanced aircraft. Soon, pressurised cabins and jet technology came into the picture and by the time the war came to an end, the technology was more advanced than ever. Another arms race began as the two superpowers, America and Russia, competed to gain the upper hand in the Cold War. Jet technology was further refined and the range of aircraft extended. Such technologies affected the commercial market for air travel as much as they did for the military. Douglas initially was the largest producer of commercial aircraft, but Boeing soon cornered the markets with the release of the model 747, which changed the way air travel was run till this day. However, a new giant has recently made it big, the Airbus company with their A380 model, and subsequent advanced designs, making people wonder if there is a new aviation revolution waiting to happen.

From dreams to reality, from kites to jumbo planes, Man has succeeded in taking flight and joining the other creatures of flight in the skies. Once we merely thought of joining the creatures of flight as equals, but today we have surpassed them by leaps and bounds, being able to fly further, faster and higher than any known creature in the world. Man has come a long way since our existence, and out thirst and dreams of desiring something that is bodily out of reach drives us ever forward. We are a species that is not designed for flight, but yet we manage to break the boundaries and chains binding us to the ground. The sky is the limit for us now.

Lee Shao Yee (S3)

Catholic High

Note: The topic was a GCE O-Level essay question.