George Laidlaw is a novelist and President of the Ottawa Independent Writers.
Man is the interloper when he challenges the medium of air. There are other creatures that have developed through evolution the ability to fly.
Birds, insects, bats and the occasionally flying fish but man entered that realm through the use of his intelligence and his engineering skills.
From the first plane flown by the Wright brothers, to the first plane flown in Canada by J.A.D. McCurdy — the Silver Dart, Feb 23 1909 — man has been falling out of the sky.
Cal Rogers the first person to fly across continental U.S.A. was knocked out of the sky by a bird.
In Canada a family called Bryant also carries a strange record Alys McKey Bryant was the first woman to fly in Canada (31 July 1912) and her husband John M. Bryant was the first person to die in an air crash in Canada (6 Aug. 1913).
How safe are we from bird attacks?
Unlike Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds, they do not try and kill humans. But birds and aircraft don't mix.
A sand hill crane hitting a plane flying at 500 m.p.h. carries a punch equivalent to 100 tons over a diameter of 8 inches. Often planes find the confrontation disastrous in either structural damage or in lives or both.
For an interesting book about Birds and Aircraft and their struggles read Birdstrike by George Laidlaw and learn how tenuous is our claim to air supremacy. www.georgelaidlaw.ca
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