Journal: News & Comment

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Flight

Flying in a plane is, when you think about it, a pretty amazing thing. But we don't think about it much -- jumbo jets wheel over my house dozens of times a day on their way to Vancouver International Airport, and most of the time we don't even look up.

P. Smith, Salon's anonymous airline pilot correspondent, puts it well:

Here I am, sitting in a Boeing 747, a plane that, if it were tipped onto its nose, would rise as tall as a 20-story office tower. I'm at 33,000 feet over the middle of the Pacific Ocean traveling at 600 miles per hour, en route to the Far East, a voyage that once took seven weeks in a sailing ship. And what are the 400 passengers doing? Complaining, sulking, reading the paper and tapping grumbly rants into their laptops. The man next to me, having paid a $5,600 business class fare, is upset because there's a dent in the lip of his can of ginger ale.

If you're more interested in planes and flying than that, read Smith's other articles.

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