The Golden Age of Air Travel

It used to be fun...

"The Art Of Flying" by Jan van IJken

Filmmaker and photographer Jan van IJken filmed starlings murmurating (flying and swooping in a dense flock).

His website describes the film:
"Short film about 'murmurations': the mysterious flights of the Common Starling. It is still unknown how the thousands of birds are able to fly in such dense swarms without colliding. Every night the starlings gather at dusk to perform their stunning air show. Because of the relatively warm winter of 2014/2015, the starlings stayed in the Netherlands instead of migrating southwards. This gave filmmaker Jan van IJken the opportunity to film one of the most spectacular and amazing natural phenomena on earth. The film has been screened at more than 50 international film festivals, galleries, etc."

Watching this enormous flock is hypnotizing. There has been much debate and recent scientific breakthroughs about how they do it. But I am left wondering why they do it. It must be thrilling to be part of the flock and let go to a larger system, a larger body, moving simply to feel movement, to feel alive. My heart is beating faster just thinking of it: the transcendent feeling, the sense of being out of your body but in control at the same time, a peak experience, like a dream. Of course I am reminded of Kate Bush's musical masterpiece "Aerial," a song cycle about birds, the sun, the moon, and the sky,...and in particular the final song of that cycle called "Aerial" where Kate joins birds on a roof at sunrise in a cacophonous, thundering, heart-stopping event. Just like this video trailer. Watch...but listen, too. I bet if we could map out the patterns of their movements, we would see they are flying in fractals.

http://www.janvanijken.com/

SKYACHT™ONE

Designer Eddie Sotto (former Senior Vice President of Concept Design at Disney's Imagineering division) has created an amazing airplane he has named Skyacht One, inspired by the vision of one George Whittell Jr. of Lake Tahoe, California. Back in 1939 Whittell was in love with his Douglas DC2 Aircraft. The gleaming fuselage and streamlined shapes drove him to commission the Thunderbird, a fantastic Hackercraft motor yacht (seen below) to match his airplane.

Sotto used this as a springboard to bring the idea full circle and transform the mahogany planks and exposed technology of the boat into a luxury "yacht in the sky." The design and details are staggering, mixing a kind of 1930s air-and-sea-travel sensibility with designs of astrolabes, armillary spheres, and charts to give it a Jules Verne-esque twist...from the handmade brass and marquetry clock inspired by the 15th Century Ducal Palace Studiolo, to Piero Fornasetti's gold plated "Astrolabio" China that gleams over dinner.

http://www.skyachtone.com/

BEAUTY: Painting--Jim Darling

Still flying...
This looks so familiar to me, having been on planes for many hours this year. The view from the window can be so fascinating but also comforting in a way. The world looks so organized and manageable from high above...

Jim darling makes plastic facsimiles of plane windows to frame his aerial views of urban and rural landscapes.

Top to bottom: Dallas; NYC; Heartland2; Heartland; unknown

http://cargocollective.com/jimdarling/

Eagle Flight

Continuing the flying theme from Kate's "Before The Dawn" show I just saw in London, here is a stunning piece of video filmed by David De Vleeschauwer and Debbie Pappyn: a camera attached to the back of a golden eagle flying across a plane in the Altai Mountains of Mongolia.

Fuel for my flying dreams...

When the future was still full of possibility...

Retro NASA jet pack footage...

Flying

It's the latest thing. Everyone's doing it. Why aren't you?

My History of Flight

When I was young
I learned to flap my arms
like a blind baby sparrow
or a Da Vinci contraption
and thus raise myself
off the ground.

When I was older
the air changed
to something thick
like syrup
and I moved
as though under water,
giving a push with my feet,
propelling myself forward
with a butterfly stroke...

I never flew higher
than the telephone lines
or two to three stories,
whichever came first,
until I had an uncontrollable
problem with gravity.
I found myself plastered
against the ceiling,
being drawn up --
I struggled to pull myself
out the door and
I soared straight up
as the sun set.
Through the clouds
I saw the lights of the city
sputter and glow.

Now I fly by
will power alone.
No awkward flapping,
no aqua ballet.
I just raise my arms and
will my body
to rise over
roof tops, tree tops...

©JEF 1986