Crazy Days

Pigs Do Fly When We Put Them on Airplanes

If you have ever heard someone say, "That will happen when pigs fly" you know they mean "when pigs fly under their own power". Of course pigs can fly when we put them on airplanes. The old expression needs to be updated. Modern technology: isn't it a wonderful thing?

Did you know that men have been flying for hundreds of years? We grow up learning about the Wright Brothers (Orville and Wilbur), and we are told they invented the airplane. But you might be surprised to learn that the ancient Chinese empire had a special "air" division that sent men into the sky via large kites. We fly kites for fun today, but large kite-like structures have been adapted to parasailing and similar sports.

Leonardo da Vinci is famous for having designed several flying machines, although in practice none of them worked. He was unable to test his ideas properly because he did not have the engineering technology he needed. Centuries later when men tried to fly da Vinci's machine they were unable to find success.

Western civilization first took to the skies in mythology. The Greeks had their myth about Daedelus and Icarus, but the Norse people had myths about Valkyries, women warriors who rode flying horses into battle to choose the bravest of warriors for the halls of Valhalla. Many ancient peoples believed that gods and their servants rode about in great chariots in the sky, creating lightning and thunder as they went along. But did you know that the most ancient UFO investigation was conducted by the Roman empire? They had several official investigations of flying "shields" that were seen in various parts of the Mediterranean world.

Men have dreamed of flying for millennia. The French were the first people to take to the skies in hot air balloons in the late 1700s. Benjamnin Franklin, upon learning of these remarkable balloons, wrote about an army of balloonists dropping behind enemy lines and wreaking havoc before any ground forces could stop them. So was born the idea of paratroopers 150 years before they became a reality.

Most people probbaly believed that the idea of flying was crazy. Only someone who was insane would try it, or very brave men. Unfortunately, history records that several of the earliest balloonists fell to their deaths. So did other men who tried to fly via several types of gliding devices. For many centuries it would have been unrealistic for people to think of men flying, so the old saying "when pigs fly" really made sense for a long time.

The 20th century finally caught up with man's imagination. Wilbur and Orville Wright were not the first people to develop reliable aerial transportation. That distinction fell to the Short Brothers of merry ole England in the late 1890s. They established a balloon company that quickly transformed itself into an airplane manufacturing company after the Wright Brothers proved that powered flight was feasible.

There have been many crazy days since then. Aerial innovation has not ceased to amaze and surprise people for the last 100 years. This Website celebrates some of the amazing stories of the aerial revolution. And, yes, pigs do now fly! Will wonders never cease?