Most of us who are infused with aeroplanes, aviation and the experiences that stem from both don't need to have the value of our industry explained to us. For us, it is bewildering that those outside aviation have to have it explained to them.
A new IMAX film from Brian J. Terwilliger, maker of the classic One-Six Right, lays out the way the invention of the aeroplane has changed the world, and how flying went from impossible to nearly perfected in less than 100 years.
Living in the Age of Airplanes explores society's general complacency with aeroplanes, which is the result of few people being left alive from the days before flight was possible.
Terwilliger shows how aeroplanes have made journeys shorter, and in many cases possible, given that nowadays if you couldn't fly you would reconsider going at all.
"If we couldn't fly, we probably wouldn't go," says voice-over man Harrison Ford, "and if we didn't go, imagine how different our lives would be."
The script talks about how humans spread across the globe from Africa to the last place they populated: the southern tip of South America. That journey took thousands of years; aeroplanes make it possible to do in less than a day.
It's a revealing film that documents what is possibly the greatest revolution mankind has been through. Aeroplanes became the first machines to travel over both land and sea, bridged gaps of thousands of miles and unlocked locations around the world that were once hopelessly isolated, even those that don't have airports.
"It's a portal to a planet," Ford says. "We're only walking distance to almost anywhere."
Living in the Age of Airplanes see-saws between a romantic vision of flight and a pragmatic approach that outlines the benefits. It details, for example, the story of how aeroplanes make it possible for roses to be picked in Kenya and sold from a florist in the USA only three days later.
But perhaps more than anything, Terwilliger's film explores exploration, and how aeroplanes have once again encouraged humans to broaden their own horizons, creating new perceptions of a world they once thought so small. From the cobbled streets of Rome to the azure-blue water of the Maldives; from Australia to Antarctica, aeroplanes have taken far-away lands and brought them much closer to the average person.
If you get a chance, see this documentary with someone who isn't as enthusiastic about flight as you are; to you it will entertain, to them it will educate, and we need more people educated about flight at all levels.
Living in the Age of Airplanes is on at IMAX Melbourne right now. Check out more about the film online, then go to the IMAX Melbourne website to find yourself a good session time.
Alternatively, you can buy a DVD/Blu-Ray copy or a digital HD download from the Living in the Age of Airplanes website.
- Steve Hitchen