Barnstorming essays

Barnstorming essays Barnstorming: The Wings of Superman Welcome ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We are traveling at a maximum speed, and at an altitude of 28,000 feet. There will be no seatbelts, or brakes, so please sit back and enjoy the flight. Would you pay five bucks a pop to fly with a barnstormer? What is a barnstormer? A barnstormer is someone who performs dangerous stunts with an airplane. These dare-devils were called flying circuses, (Hanson78) they would fly low to the ground, stood and walked on wings, or dipped and looped in mid-air. Everyday, these barnstormers would put their lives at risk for public applause. Soon, technology stepped in and scientists and inventors came up with new ideas to make the biplane safer. This fact is what really crashed a barnstormers hopes, No longer would there be that death-defying pilot who flew with the knowledge at the seat of his pants. The commercial air transportation business started off by carrying mail, then cargo, and later passengers. Business boomed after the 1920s and into the 1930s. Controlled airplanes and big money got the best of small time fun. The technology of aviation was a result of barnstorming individualists who put their lives in danger. Background and History of Barnstorming To become a barnstormer, was to express an independent and romantic side. From the 1800s up into the 1900s, it was all about being quiet, calm, and following the rules. The roaring twenties changed all of that; women were actually doing things that men did. Women wanted rights with being able to vote and they wanted the right to be able to fly an airplane as well. Amelia Earhart was one of those individualists who broke out of the 1800s. Even though Colonel Billy Mitchell was the first to fly around the world in 1924. Amelia was the first woman to fly around the world from west to east in June 1937, (refer t...