Obviously research regarding technological unemployment is as vital today as further refinement and production of labor-saving and comfort-giving devices. Among all the marvels of modern invention, that with which I am most concerned is of course air transportation. Flying is perhaps the most dramatic of recent scientific attainments. In the brief span of thirty-odd years the world has seen an inventor's dream, first materialized by the Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk, become an everyday actuality. Perhaps I'm prejudiced, but to me it seems that no other phase of modern progress contrives to maintain such a brimming measure of romance and beauty, coupled with utility, as does aviation.
Within itself this industry embraces many of the scientific accomplishments which yesterday seemed fantastic impossibility. The pilot, winging his way above the Earth at two hundred miles an hour talks by radio telephone to ground stations, or to other planes in the air. In thick weather he is guided by radio beams and receives detailed reports of conditions ahead, gleaned through special instruments and new methods of meteorogical calculations. He sits behind engines, the reliability of which, measured by yardsticks of the past, is all but unbelievable. I myself still fly a Wasp motor, which has carried me over the North Atlantic, part of the Pacific, to and from Mexico City, and many times across this continent. Aviation, this young, modern giant, exemplifies the possible relationship of women and the creations of science.
Although women as yet have not taken full advantage of its use and benefits, air travel is as available to them, as to men. As so often happens in introducing the new or changing the old, public acceptance depends peculiarly upon women's family attitudes. In aviation they are arbiters of whether or not their families shall fly, and as such are a potent influence.
- Man kan läsa denna text lyssnandes på avantjazzarna The Muffins låt som är namne med flygarkvinnan ursprungur. http://findus.dhs.org/~odd/03-Amelia_Earthart.mp3
- Jag föredrar _Pasta la Vista_ av John Carmody, av uppenbara skäl.
- Inte så uppenbart väl?
- Det är ju Amelia Earhart själv som pratar i den!