I have a slight fear of flying, partly due to not understanding how (for example - a Boeing 747-400 that weighs about 393,000 pounds), can even get off the ground. As many times as I read about how an airplane "works", the technology still baffles me enough to cause a fear of the unknown. But I have an appreciation of the history of air flight and am amazed that it's been only about 100 years that humankind started getting off the ground. Wow."I believe that it will be possible in a very few years for a person to take his dinner in New York at seven or eight o'clock in the evening and eat his breakfast in Ireland or England the following morning."
- ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL, 1896
Former Canadian astronaut Bjarni Tryggvason declared "mission accomplished" after successfully taking off a modern version of the famed Silver Dart airplane.
The Silver Dart (named for its silvery-coloured wings) was a ground-breaking, skin and bones aircraft, that first flew 100 years ago on Feb. 23, 1909. First flown in Baddeck, N.S., led by famed inventor Alexander Graham Bell, the crew was anxious to fly or fail, but either way making Canadian history.
The Wright Brothers had launched the era of controlled, powered flight in late 1903 at Kitty Hawk, N.C.
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