The United States of Aerospace

The perfect episode to listen to on the eve of the 4th of July and our 250 anniversary.  The founding fathers could not fathomed what we would accomplish in the air and in space in 1776.  Let’s look at our aerospace story.  Why we are the United States of Aerospace.

Transcript

Paula 0:00

For the Best Aerospace Era this is the mansplaining podcast. Here is your host Anthony L. Sealey

0:10

Welcome aerospace enthusiasts. This is 2026, which means it's the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. This is a time to reflect on the many accomplishments and stories from our time and celebrate the many prominent names that will come up from our history. Stories from the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad, the Manhattan Project, World War I, World War II, the Civil Rights Movement, and 9/11 are all relevant historical observations from our story. But what about the first powered flight? The first solo flight over the Atlantic? Or the first manned moon landing? I'm here to tell you Why our accomplishments in aerospace are so important to our history. In fact, we are the United States of Aerospace. Oh, yes, our national anthem. Francis Scott Key wrote the lyrics to The Star-Spangled Banner after watching the British forces bombard Fort McHenry in Baltimore during the War of 1812. All right, now we can take our hands off of our chest, take a seat, and get back to it I will get to why the United States of America is the premier aerospace power, the United States of Aerospace, if you will, momentarily. First, when you think of the United States of America, what do you think of? The Fourth of July, the Boston Tea Party, the Empire State Building, the Ford Mustang, the Kentucky Derby, the Wild West with cowboys and Indians, the Indianapolis 500, the Daytona 500, Coca-Cola, the Masters at Augusta, the Super Bowl In fact, we have won more Super Bowls, baseball World Series, Stanley Cups, and NBA championships than any other nation. Okay, that might be unfair, but we have won more Olympic gold medals than any other nation in modern times. That's more than three thousand. Now let's go back to the beginning, 1776. We know these revered words. "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." This is where it all started. By signing this declaration, all 56 of these men were committing treason against the British Empire Some of these names on the Declaration of Independence are well known, like Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Samuel Adams. Others like Caesar Rodney, Francis Lightfoot Lee, and Button Gwinnett are not as well known. But by committing support and signing this piece of paper, they were blatantly committing treason. What happens to a person who is charged with treason? Yes, they are shot. That's one reason why John Hancock's large, bold signature is so famous, I actually have a copy of the Declaration of Independence on my living room wall. No, it's not one of the expensive famous ones Now I'm sure all of these fifty-six men have seen a bird, let's say an Eagle, soar in the sky or gazed at the full moon at night, but none of them could have imagined what the people of this nation that they founded would accomplish in the air and space. Not even Ben Franklin. Now, aside from those who signed the Declaration of Independence, what other prominent figures have we learned about from our story? George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Jackie Robinson, Hank Aaron, George Patton, Marilyn Monroe, Harriet Tubman, Hulk Hogan, Elvis, Jesse Owens, Martin Luther King Jr., Jimi Hendrix. What about these names from aerospace history? Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart, Jimmy Doolittle, Buzz Aldrin, Chuck Yeager, Jackie Cochran, Orville and Wilbur Wright, Robert Goddard, Gus Grissom, Jerrie Cobb, James Webb, Collette Woolman, Tom Stafford. These are just a few of the big names that have contributed to our aerospace story. And of course, I'm gonna say it here. Thanks to our awesome men and women of the United States Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines, and Coast Guard that have made sure That we have had air superiority for more than 80 years And how about those thousands of aerospace engineers, mechanics, airline workers, and the many others who have made the US the premier aerospace power, the United States of Aerospace, if you will And of course, I haven't said his name yet, but I'm going to here: Neil Armstrong. I recently recorded an Extra Section episode at the Armstrong Air and Space Museum and mentioned that Armstrong's name will and should come up regularly as we commemorate our 250th anniversary. Speaking of him, let's look at a few things that we have achieved since the dawn of the Space Age. Our first manned space program was Project Mercury. This is where the space age began for us. First with two suborbital launches by means of a Redstone rocket, and then four orbital missions by means of an Atlas rocket. We were ready to take our air superiority to the next level. After the achievements during the Mercury program, our aerospace engineers made what I consider to be the first real spacecraft with the Gemini program. By that I mean with the Gemini spacecraft, an astronaut can maneuver from a lower to higher orbit and back again. With the Gemini spacecraft, our astronauts can maneuver to rendezvous with another Gemini spacecraft, close enough that our astronauts could see and wave at each other through the small windows. This happened in December of 1965 with Gemini 6A with Wally Schirra and Tom Stafford when they rendezvoused in orbit with Gemini 7 with Jim Lovell and Frank Borman at a distance of around 40 feet. Our astronauts could also perform the dangerous maneuver and dock Gemini with another craft. It can be modified so that an astronaut can open the hatch and go for an EVA or spacewalk. With the Gemini program, we are the first, and as of this episode recording, the only nation to leave low Earth orbit The Gemini program was the first to deliver on the promises of what the space age could and should be. I encourage any and all aerospace enthusiasts to see one in person and look at the stories of the astronauts who flew the missions on them. We are the only nation to send its astronauts further out into space, and we also recorded the fastest speed ever achieved with a manned craft with Apollo 10. I just mentioned that in a previous episode, didn't I? And of course, with Apollo 11, we are the first and only space nation to land its own astronauts on another celestial object, the moon, of course. Not just once, but six times, and there are six of our flags planted on its surface, all placed there by an American astronaut. They got there on the awesome and one of the greatest technical achievements ever, the Saturn V. It's hard to appreciate the sheer scale of how big that rocket is unless you have seen one in person There are still three examples of the Saturn V that I know about on display. One is at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. One is at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, and the other is at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. I've actually seen all three, and I highly recommend you go see one or all of them yourself. Now, some will say none of this was possible without the German rocket scientists recruited in Project Paperclip after World War II, most notably Wernher von Braun. Well, let me tell you about this. If you have listened to my episode, What Happened in 1926, from the last series, then you know about our rocket pioneer, Robert Goddard. This is what happened at Annapolis in 1945 when Goddard, along with some staffers, got a look at the famous V2 rocket made by the Germans. One staffer said to Goddard as they were examining the V2, "It looks like ours." And Goddard replied, "Yes, it seems so" Another staffer said after the examination, Of course, it was more elaborate and much larger than the rockets we worked on, but it seemed extremely familiar." Did the Germans copy us? Either way, this is all achieved during the best aerospace era without the modern technology that we have today. I talked about this in great detail in my episode Why It's the Best Aerospace Era from the last series. Also, many of our spacecraft from this era have some truly American names. Like Liberty Bell 7 on Mercury-Redstone 4, Eagle, the lunar module on Apollo 11, Kitty Hawk, the command module on Apollo 14, America, the command module on Apollo 17, and Freedom 7 on Mercury-Redstone 3. Speaking of Freedom 7, some say the first man in space was actually an American. Some say aboard Freedom Seven, astronaut Alan Shepard was the first man in space on May fifth, nineteen sixty-one instead of Yuri Gagarin If you have listened to my episode First Time back in Series 2, then you may remember Gagarin ejects out of the Soviet Vostok spacecraft, during re-entry, and then parachutes down back to Earth. That's how it was designed, and that was the plan. Some people and reputable organizations believe Gagarin's flight does not count because he did not pilot or ride the craft all the way back down to Earth, as did Shepard. I will explore this topic and share my thoughts on this in the future. Now, how about today? We had a hundred and ninety-three space launches from the US in 2025, by far more than any other nation. That number will probably exceed two hundred this year in 2026. Speaking of this year, we are the first nation to return astronauts to lunar orbit with Artemis II. Although we did take a Canadian along with us for this one. Think of how much that Uber fare was for the Canadians. There is almost a new space race to see who can land a person there again. There are some more players this time around, though. Along with NASA, there are space programs from China, India, Japan, Russia, and European countries that all have plans for the moon. Also, private companies like SpaceX and Blue Origins are also working to get there. Most likely in the next ten years, we will see a human walk on the moon again and possibly a moon base will be established. I believe one thing is for sure, at some point Old Glory will be casting a shadow on the lunar surface once again. Now to aviation. It's no accident that the language of the sky is English, otherwise known as American. Here is a quote from one of aviation's most important figures at the beginning of the Best Aerospace Era, a man I've mentioned many times here, Eddie Rickenbacker. He said this at our nation's capital in the 1930s to Congress, "The fact that Washington doesn't have an airport and is not participating in the progress of today is a source of shame to every Washington citizen, member of Congress, and to the entire country at large. Transportation is life itself. Wherever we find rapid means of transportation and communication, we find happiness, peace, and prosperity." I really like this quote, especially the part where he says transportation is life itself. Now, as we are the nation that gave the world heavier-than-air flight, we have embraced it more than anyone else. You don't have to take my word for it here. Here are some numbers for you from the FAA. There are more than 16 million flights a year. Almost 10 million of those are passenger flights. There are more than 44,000 flights per day. Around 5,500 flights are in our airspace at peak times. There are nineteen thousand four hundred and eighty-two airports and more than three million passengers fly in and out of those airports every day. And we have four of the top ten biggest and busiest airports in the world, Chicago O'Hare International Airport, Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, Denver International Airport, and as I call it, the biggest and baddest airport of them all, Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. I used to work there. Now I want to profile two major airlines that have been in business for 100 years as of this year, 2026, and they both have very patriotic names. Let's start with United. The United Airlines that we know today began with an airline named Varney Airlines, using one Swallow biplane. Their first flight was in 1926 on air mail route number five. Over the next few years, Varney merged with a few other airlines. Pacific Air Transport, National Air Transport, Stout Air Service, and Boeing Air Transport. This was a time when aircraft manufacturers also had an arm that operated as airlines. Also of note, Boeing Air Transport was the first airline to have what we call flight attendants on their flights They completely consolidated under the name United in 1931. The airline then expanded routes further out from the Pacific Northwest and diversified adding cargo and passenger service. In the early 1930s, United carried more passengers comfortably with one of the first all-metal airliners, The Boeing 247. Years later, in 1960, United was the first airline to operate the Boeing 720. This aircraft was a kind of shortened variant of the iconic Boeing 707. United used to offer adult men only passenger flights in the 1950s until 1970. Imagine the backlash if they tried something like that today. Also during this time, in 1961, United merged with another major player in the airline business, Capital Airlines. This merger made United the largest commercial airline in the world. United would not always keep this title after the Best Aerospace era. I believe United regained this title in 2012 when they merged with Continental Airlines. Now what began with a Swallow biplane, today United Airlines operates the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Although their name and insignia on their tail of their aircraft has changed over 100 years, United's legacy is profound. If you want to know more about their history, check out the United Airlines Historical Foundation. Now let's talk about American Airlines. The American Airlines that we know today began as Robertson Air Company, with one mail route between Chicago and St. Louis using a DH4 biplane in 1926. Over the next few years, Robertson merged with a few other companies like Colonial Air Transport, Southern Air Transport, and Universal Airlines. They formed to become American Airways. Then in 1934, they rebranded themselves as American Airlines after the Air Mail Act of 1934. I cover why many airline companies had to rebrand or simply rename themselves in 1934 because of government interfering in the episode An Ace in the Airlines from Series 3 American was one of the first airlines to employ flight attendants. They were also the first to create a facility dedicated to training flight attendants. American was the first to operate the iconic DC-3 in a commercial capacity. In 1947, with a fully pressurized DC-6, American served flights from Los Angeles to New York. and just over a decade later, it was American that operated the first transcontinental jet flight from Los Angeles to New York using the Boeing 707. In 1970, American merged with Trans Caribbean Airways, which opened up a big moneymaker region for the company. So by 1975, American Airlines was a major player in the business, just as they are today. What began with a DH4 biplane, Today American Airlines operates aircraft like the A321neo. They, just like aviation itself, have come a long way in 100 years. If you want to know more about their history, check out their centennial article at news.aa.com Now, both United and American Airlines serve millions of passengers with hubs all over the country, and each began with one mail route delivery back in 1926. I have seen rumors online about a merger between United and American. I personally don't see this happening, but it won't be the first time two major mega airlines have merged. I could make a standalone episode on United or American's story, and I may do that in the future, so stand by for that. There are other airlines with patriotic names, like US Airways, that merged with American Airlines in 2013. There is also a commuter carrier named Republic Airways based out of Indianapolis that has been in business for around fifty years. Because of the work done by US airline workers since the dawn of flight, we have chosen to fly more than anyone else. By the way, I don't mean to call out anyone who doesn't like to fly and prefers to drive. In fact, I love the idea of traveling across the country on Route 66 in an American muscle car. That sounds awesome, doesn't it? I don't know if I'll ever have the time to make that happen between work, this podcast, life, and other hobbies, but I do love the idea, and I personally prefer to fly when I travel. The important thing here is that you should travel and see this awesome country of ours. Go explore. I should also mention the American workers at aerospace companies like Lockheed Martin, Curtiss Wright, Boeing, McDonnell Douglas, Cessna, North American, and many others. Without them, the P-51 Mustang, the 747, the Saturn V, among way too many more to mention here, would not have been made. Now, as I've said before, neither the Founding Fathers who signed the Declaration of Independence nor the men who fought on the battlefields of the Revolutionary War could have ever dreamed of what this nation would accomplish in the air and in space Although I would like to think they would be proud of our men and women in the United States military who have made sure that the US has had air superiority now and in the future. And of the thousands of American aerospace engineers who have designed premier airplanes, jets, and rockets, and of the airline workers who make the US a premier nation to travel in the air. And specifically of Charles Lindbergh from Detroit, Michigan, whose solo flight across the Atlantic popularized aviation in America. Of Amelia Earhart from Kansas, whose achievements in the air have inspired thousands of American girls to take flight And of course, Neil Armstrong from Ohio, who became the first man to walk on the lunar surface and inspired thousands of Americans to shoot for the moon. Speaking of Ohio, I made an episode profiling its impact on aerospace from series three. I should do more of these types of episodes in the future. Which state should I profile next? Now I could go on and on here, but I think you get the idea that aerospace is as American as red, white, and blue, and I don't want to take up any more of your time. Go celebrate Independence Day, our 250th. Thank you so much for listening, and remember, there's always a light at the end of the runway.

Paula 27:50

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