My research began on a historical front. Since I am equating freedom to the desire of flight I wanted to get to the bottom of when and where humans have inducted flight as a prominent aspect to societal advancement. The first source I explored was Nasa. Nasa expressed that the desires of flight and conversations surrounding it, became documented with greek legends. Stories including pegasus, winged horses, and icarus, describe human bodes using vessels of flight to represent spiritual embodiments. Around 400 BC in China, efforts of physical flight began with the invention of the kite. Kites are the foundationary piece of flight as a leisurely state. During this time period, humans attempted to build wings like birds and the results often included death. Finally in 1495, the most well known discoverings involving flight were done by Leonardo da Vinci during the renaissance. Da Vinci made a series of flight drawings that insisted on the actualities of successful human flight. After Da Vinci's drawings brought possibility into a larger scale, flying machines became a challenge to tackle. Finally, in 1903, the Wright brothers, using the foundation molded by scientists and astronomers before them, completed the first successful plane or “flyer.” The historical delving of human flight brings upon a most common theme, the utter extent a person is willing to go to be successful at flight. It clarified to me that the desire for freedom on a higher scale, has existed for centuries. It makes me want to explore how innate these desires are. Do they come from a sense of mythological wonder, or pure scientific discovery? Lives were persistently on the line, just for the purpose of successful flying vessels. Historical Articles discussed the almost immediate militarization of flight in 1911, right before World War I. Italy became the first country to incorporate aircraft into battle. Now flying has become about power and control. Excessive freedom is essentially a status and not long after, commercial flights were introduced into society, Humans crave status and they crave freedom, so much so that they are willing to ignore the fundamental “life on the line” aspect of flight.
Nasa was an exploratory source that gave me a simple understanding of the historical background on flight. Since space aircraft is, what I would consider, flight to its highest technological form, it is fascinating to read from that specific historical perspective.
The History channel went beyond the first recorded successful air travel. History discussed the militarization of flight, which is an incredibly important concept to keep in mind when I discuss desires of flight on the grander scheme of power and physical hierarchy.
This article by science direct, provides a short excerpt on the fantastization of flight. It represents how dreams of flight are synchronous amongst cultures and are often “linked to immortality”
This source provided me with an indepth summary of flight in a mythological sense, It represented flight from a cultural standpoint. A quote I believe embodies this article is “flight symbolized not only the physical act of soaring through the skies but also a deeper philosophical aspiration toward knowledge, freedom, and transcendence”
As the article title suggest, this source embodies how flight is, at its core, an imitation of birds. Flight transcends beyond the physical act of being in the air, but it is a leisurely desire that connects cultures worldwide.
This source discusses the militarization of flight within the united states. As an outreach of this article, I have decided to interview my Uncle, an Afghanistan and Iraq veteran, who has experienced military flight first hand. This provides me a well rounded perspective on what it feels like to fly when you are the one on control.
I asked Chat GBT to primarily provide me with sources discussing the militarization of flight. It provided me lengthy article from “Air University” primarily focusing on strategic bombing and combat based flight.
I also asked about flight on a philosophical scale, since that is merely a theoretical concept, I wanted articles that center themselves on historical thinkers. It provided me with a short source that used numerous of scholarly articles to guide my research.