Copyright 2025 Don Ray
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NECESSARY EXCESS
Morning, watching William Shatner (actor who
played Captain Kirk in the 1960’s TV series Star Trek) actually fly into space
on the second crewed Blue Origins flight.
Later that morning: watching an Al Jazeera
documentary about flying seventy-year-old Douglas Commercial 3’s (DC-3’s) in
Columbia.
Shatner and the other three passengers, two of
whom paid millions of dollars, had to do nothing on the completely automated
thrill-ride flight.
Captain Raul, the pilot in Columbia, probably in
his fifties, has to weigh the cargo so the cargo merchants don’t overload his
plane. He handles all the flight scheduling, recorded on large sheets of
paper. He checks the fuel for water.
Blue Origins is a toy of the rich. The
Columbian pilot does not get paid unless he’s flying, motivating him to fly in
dangerous conditions.
Blue Origins’ rocket is state of the art.
The DC-3 is fueled by carrying buckets of gasoline up ladders and pouring it
into the tanks. The pilot determines how much to put in each tank,
striving for the minimum weight that will allow maximum cargo.
Crews race to the Blue Origins capsule after
landing. The DC-3 captain flies over the Amazon jungle, with no hope of
rescue in the event of a forced landing.
These dichotomies occurred simultaneously.
It is quite possible the DC-3 pilot was flying at the same time Shatner was
flying.
The pioneering flight pilots and engineers of
the 1930’s, when flying was for the elite and rich, created a technology that
still brings fuel and food to isolated villages in Columbia these decades
later.
Will any similar dichotomy be occurring seventy
years from now with space-flight? …..or will a rebuilding humanity look
back on space-flights of the rich and famous as a last egregious display of
hedonistic excess?
Copyright 2025 Don Ray
Please share.
