Razor’s edge

A minimum number is just that

Flight is still a thing of wonder, albeit for different reasons to when the Wright Brothers skimmed the fields of Kittyhawk and the ‘Southern Cross’ conquered the Pacific. Today, we can be awestruck that the mass of an Antonov can leave the earth, or that our smartphone can pinpoint the position of a commercial flight as it wings its way to London. There has been no single ‘game-changer’, just a continual pursuit of safer, more efficient flight across a broader operating range.

At the core of this advancement have been leaps in technology and a closer examination of the human factor and how the two interface. Satellite navigation has replaced the sextant and an awareness of Crew Resource Management (CRM) has replaced the benevolent dictator – in most cases.