Another Famous Pilot and AI

Wiley Post, according to Laurie Gwen Shapiro, was the first pilot to fly solo around the world and this was in 1933. He was renowned for his high altitude flying and helped develop a pressure suit for that reason. Sadly, in 1935 the humorist, Will Rogers, and Post were killed when their plane crashed on takeoff. Flying in the early days was so dangerous. 

Thinking about early flight, it makes sense why it was risky. Pilots had to be in excellent physical condition to manually handle and operate the controls. Throw in turbulence and unpredictable weather and stamina is absolutely necessary. The pilot is in a small enclosed area and if you’re over open ocean for vast stretches, isolated, it makes sense that mental fitness is also essential. 

Which brings us to Amelia Earhart. She had several successes and was in training to circumnavigate the globe in 1937. Earhart was going to have a navigator on board, but she would be the first woman to pilot to accomplish the feat. 

Sadly, on July 2, 1937 she disappeared over the Pacific Ocean and to this day neither her remains or the plane, have been recovered. Of course, there are a lot of conspiracy theories about her death. In the following years we’ve seen tremendous technological advances improving the quality of planes, their instrumentation and controls. Training and education have improved as well such that flight is considered to be the safest form of transportation. 

And that leads me to Artificial Intelligence…We’re in the early stages of it and while no one really knows how it will change, and change us, I’m hearkended by the fact that airplane travel has gone from a very risky proposition to remarkably safe. Let’s see if we can do that with AI.