Q.E.D.

ok. I’ve been really busy and doing lots of stuff and unfortunately for the three of you who read this, I’ve been too busy doing said stuff to actually write about it. however, I will take a short break from writing papers, grading papers, making homemade tarka dhal for the first time ever (whoa) and possibly buying a house, to share something special with you.

every time I fly, (as I did a couple weekends ago to visit my parents in massachusetts), I marvel at the physics of flight. fucking amazing. that’s all there is to it. that Newton’s Third Law helps a gigantic metal tube accelerate upward, downward and forward with just the help of a little internal combustion is simply stunning, when you think about it.

what’s more, to realize the incredible feat of engineering said metal contraptions represent was originally accomplished decades ago just boggles the mind. well, it boggles my mind, anyway. as I stepped onto my flight to Providence two weeks ago, I noticed this little plaque bolted into the doorway of the southwest jet I was boarding:

it measured only a few inches across and was rather inconspicuous; it hung right next to the serial number plate found on every other jet in use by the airline industry. nonetheless, it caught my eye, and when we stopped over in Philadelphia, I asked if I could take a picture of it before the rest of the passengers began boarding. (the flight attendant looked at me like I was stupid for asking; I joked something about not wanting wind up on a terrorist list for taking pictures of airplanes, and was a little disappointed when he didn’t even smirk).

anyway, when I got home I looked up the story behind this plane. turns out this ordinary little plane that shuttled me roughly 600 ordinary miles on that ordinary Thursday night was indeed the 5000th Boeing 737 produced, and the ordinary little 737 many travelers know and love (or don’t know and don’t care about) has a grander history than you might think. as Boeing beams:

With more than 4,100 airplanes in service, the 737 represents more than a quarter of the total worldwide fleet of large commercial jets flying today. More than 541 operators fly 737s into more than 1,200 cities in 190 countries. It is estimated that approximately 1,250 737s are in the air at any given moment, with one taking off or landing every 4.6 seconds.

how many seconds did it take you to read this post?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007 at 8:49 pm and is filed under going places. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.