On 17th December 1903 Orville and Wilbur Wright had the first successful powered flight. A hundred years later we have supersonic, pilotless spy planes and space shuttles!
In the 1950s aircraft got fast; in the 1980s they got stealthy; today they’re getting smart. Brilliant, in fact. From the private four-seater to the massive A380, the airplane is evolving most dramatically on the inside. In the military, computer automation has resulted in a new generation of airplanes called unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, like the X47A that fly without any pilots at all.
In commercial aviation the growth of automation has resulted in computers that already fly the plane from just after takeoff to landing, turning pilots into flight-systems managers. UAVs now spark debate over whether cargo planes and even airliners of the future could fly pilotless.
The history of disabled aviators goes back almost as far as aviation itself. In 1931 RAF Flying Officer Douglas Bader lost both legs in a flying accident. After learning to walk with artificial legs, he managed to convince the RAF that he could still fly, going on to play a heroic part in the Battle of Britain on 1940, being shot down and imprisoned. After the war he built a flying career with Shell aircraft, and was the President of the Royal International Air Tatto from 1976 until his death in 1982.
In 1992, RAF pilot Tim Ellison was involved in a flying accident when his Harrier jet suffered engine failure. The accident left Tim paraplegic. In 1993 he co-founded the British Disabled Flying Association because his passion for flying made him determined to continue flying despite his disability, and to ensure that others could do the same. In 1994 Tim gained his FAA commercial flying licenses and worked as a forest fire fighting pilot until, in 1997 he became the first paraplegic in the world to gain an FAA Airline Transport Pilot’s license. In 2001 he competed in the London to Sydney air race finishing first in class and second overall.
I hope that Tim’s story encourages people with a disability to realise that anything is possible, in life and in flying!
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