The distance between the average person and their tools has grown a great deal over the past century. There was a time when the average adult was fairly independent: they could grow and catch their own food, build their shelter, and manage their own health, albeit for their forty-year lifespan. When the tools that were used in society were primitive, it was not difficult to understand how they worked, in a general sense. Today’s tools are not primitive, and they continue to advance exponentially.
That being said, aircrafts have been taking flight for over a century. The latter half of the twentieth century saw the friendly skies open up to even middle class passengers. Air transit is now a typical form of transportation. It is normal for a new technology to appear mysterious, even magical, to the common man. However, one would expect the common man to comprehend the basics of a relatively old technology such as aviation.
I am fairly positive that more than 80% of the passengers aboard a given flight today haven’t a clue as to how the airplane is flying. Perhaps they feel better chalking airplane travel up to magic. I have news for you: the pilot is not a magician – he or she is just an operator of a well-tuned piece of engineering hardware.
