Week 2 birth of aviation
Here are some questions to bring in and consider to answer in clas on tuesday
What aspects and instances of the reading of Joseph Corn indicate his perception that society was a wonder?
Why do you think aviation was embraced in the way it was when it all started?
What motivation do you think drove Lindbergh to fly across the channel.
Do you think aviation is still as popular now as it had been then why or why not?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-CvkEUSAO4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6_USKlJF5Y&mode=related&search=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8F29-p-6kIo&mode=related&search=
Here is my background research annatoted bibliography for Jospeh Corn:
Ryan Evans
Annotated Bibliography
CHID 491
Corn Joseph J. The Winged Gospel America’s Romance with Aviation, 1900-1950. New York: Oxford University Press, 1983.
The Winged Gospel is all about the positive reaction of America during the development of aviation. Corn sums up the primary focus of his book when he writes:
“The airplane itself did not cause these developments; indeed, to speak of a technology’s ‘impact’ on culture and society here is misleading. What happened was that Americans took a tradition of technological messianism, combined it with a long-standing symbolic associations of flight with the divine, blended firmly held values such as individualism, democracy, and privacy into an intellectual and emotional response to the airplane.” (Corn p.137) He cements my argument about its shift and its part as a mechanism of war when Corn writes “Yet no matter how significant a social force the airplane appeared at mid-century, nobody could deny that it failed to usher in the millennium or produce anything resembling utopia. The air age obviously had not brought an end to war.”(Cornp.139)
“Nor had the airplane lessened urban congestion, beautiful gritty industrial cities, or relocated the average family in Jefferson harmony with nature, just a brief hop in the family plane from city job and marketplace. The collapse of this last tenet of the gospel, once central to popular enthusiasm for flying, contributed greatly to the public’s ebbing attachment to aviation.” (Corn p.139)
It shows explicitly how it was idealized and viewed as the wave of the future. “This is the history of a love affair. It documents the extraordinary affection millions of American men, women, and children felt for the flying machine during the half century after its invention in 1903.”(Corn p.vii)
It discusses key points on the development of Aviation such as the Inaugural first flight by the Wright Brothers on December 17th 1903 and the first solo Atlantic crossing by Charles Lindbergh in 1927 “The celebration of Lindbergh and his flight extended beyond parades, speeches, and public gatherings. Americans named babies, schools, and streets after the flier.”(Corn p.23)
“More than anything, the airplane symbolized the promise of the future. Americans in this period viewed mechanical flight as portending a wondrous era of peace and harmony, of culture and prosperity. This was the promise of the ‘winged gospel’”. (Corn p.vii)
This is one of my primary sources for my thesis because it shows how aviation was very positively embraced by the American society. The idealization of airplanes is shown with great detail in this book. The first flight was ritualized and it became a national remembrance ritual and holiday for the day of December 17th where speeches were given at Kitty Hawk North Carolina. “Particularly after Lindbergh, December 17th became a day of public remembrance, made official when in 1934 President Franklin D. Roosevelt designated it as National Aviation Day.”(Corn p.60) Corn gives one of the best examples of ideologies in which the nation embraced and marveled aviation in a limelight of peace. The ferver and excitement of airmindedness that the was caught up in the prewar period from flights creation up to the breakout of the second world war and the lofty dreams society had thinking that aviation would solve world problems and create a batter future. Corn writes about the lofty idealization of aviation when he writes, “Like the Christian gospels, the gospel of aviation held out a glorious promise, that of a great new day in human affairs once airplanes brought about a true air age. Lindbergh offered one version of this gospel, prophesying a future in which air travel would be commonplace and large transport planes shuttle from city to city, unhampered by weather.”(Corn p.27) This particular prophecy did in fact come true by the 1940’s however it was uncomprehensible at that time that the airplane was to be used as a mass weapon of war that could bring about so much destruction. The potential for the developing technology had not been realized and even when it was the world did not know how to react or make sense of it. Most new technologies are introduced with caution and hesitation. The automobile known as the horseless carriage was thought to be unsafe and reckless. Aviation was fully embraced and it advanced so fast that once it got to the point where it could be used for destruction it became unclear on the moral implications of using that technologies. Technology advanced beyond the capabilities of society.
Corn brought up early perceptions of deterrence in 1909 when he wrote:
“Airplanes , prophets thought, would user in an era of perpetual peace, deterring aggressors and even eliminating the conditions that cause war. This was perhaps the most enticing promise of the winged gospel. To a 1909 commentator, the age of aviation would be the ‘age of peace’ because only ‘fools’ would dare fight when armies employed flying machines. Assuming that anybody could inexpensively manufacture airplanes, he expected small countries to possess as many machines as the largest nations, thereby preventing the latter from bullying the former. The mightiest nation in the air age would thus fear the smallest and weakest country, guaranteeing the deterrence of war”. (Corn p.37 ) As seen in history this did not hold out to be true. True airplanes were used as an instrument of war but many smaller nations did not have the support or economy to produce as many airplanes. Also the airplanes themselves did not in a sense prevent wars they actually fought and escalated the severity of the war pushing war into the state of total war which is my central argument that the changing of airplane technologies pushed airplanes into an instrument of total war. Ideas that Airplanes would be used to make peace and to end wars was on the minds of people in the 1930’s. Clifford Harmon had a dream that never turned into a reality that airplanes could be used to peacefully end world conflicts. Corn wrote that: “In 1929 he proposed to the League of Nations what he called the “Silver Wings of Peace.” The organization would enlist the leading male and female pilots of the world to create a kind of flying counterpart to the League. In the event of an international crisis, the pilots of the Silver Wings would fly over the qarreling nations and drop peace leaflets. This Harmon thought, would end the crisis and restore peace. (Corn p.59). It is ironic how this conception got morphed into using deadly bombs. During the 1940’s bombs were thought to end wars and bring peace by destroying enemy moral and will to fight. The role of the airplane here has changed from a messenger of peace and compedrmise to an actual deliverer of destruction.
Corn writes, “The winged gospel, however, was always more than simply a belief in the airplane as the source of progress. Aviation was a religion. Like traditional faiths, its belief system gave meaning to existence and provided a grand design for future life. This faith not only could give aviators courage but they also could motivate airminded men and women to great efforts on behalf of the cause.” (Corn p.136) Corn continues when he writes: “Indeed, aviation was a kind of crusade for believers. They did whatever they could to foster the public’s conversion to the cause: they promoted flying as a means of travel and personal transportation; as a business and professional tool; as a military weapon; as catalyst to municipal growth; even as a source of inspiration for artists, writers and students.” (Corn p.136)
Corn also wrote “Other enthusiast voiced even grander prophecies, looking to aircraft as a means of achieving perfection on earth or even immortality, promises usually identified with more traditional religions.”(Corn p.27) “Prophecy comprised a kind of creed for the winged gospel and provided the motivation for those who practiced this secular religion of technology.” (Corn p. 27)
