Flying is about trust. It implies the renouncing of one's influence over the situation, as well as the utter inability to exert the control over our existence most, if not all of us, cherish dearly. Infants have been reported to be more captivated when they control the rotation of the mobile above them by moving their heads on a special pillow (Watson & Ramey, 1969), and old residents at healthcare institutions lived on average one year longer and in a happier state of mind if they were given a plant to take care of and could choose which activities they would get involved in, and at what time (link to research publication here). Yet, upon entering the airplane, we all renounce to that individual control so dear to us and put our trust in a skilled pilot. A sort of collective reliance on an individual settles in, as even the most anxious of passengers slowly resign to inactivity (admittedly, the process involves reaching for a pill or two in a few cases).
Flying is about wonder. From the intricate synchronization of thousands of flights to the impressive coordination of airports all around the world, the aerial world certainly is grounded in one of the most complex systems generated by man's ingenuity. The latter, in turn, renders realistic an endeavor that perplexed us for centuries: that to fly, travel ever extending distances with no attach to the earth's surface. It also precludes ever more fantastic projects. As described by Michio Saku in his book Physics of the Future, the scientific community has developed a solid theory pertaining to the developments that mankind is about to see in the field of air travel, as we will slowly build sophisticated enough engines to populate other planets and galaxies. Then, even the fantastic mechanism that is flying from country to country will be viewed as commonplace, if not trivial. These ambitions, transcendental to our planet's existence, will of course not be implemented before millennia to come. The wonder can then remain intact, pure in its essence as it is unaffected by the limitations of reality.
Flying is about recognizing our inheritance. Isaac Newton, the physicist and mathematician who developed Gravitational Theory, once said that the only reason that he could achieve such monumental work was that he was standing upon the shoulders of giants. Such a conception must not be limited in scope to fundamental breakthroughs: every single one of us, as we proceed through our daily hustles, are certainly relying on thousands of inventions and processes built and designed by a remarkable legacy of men from the global community. As it so happens, flying appears as the ultimate embodiment of such a culmination of coordinated effort. Physicists spent decades refining their theories, building upon unbreakable mathematical models, and engineers and inventors consecrated their minds (and often their bodies) to the endeavor of designing flying engines in concordance with the physicists' discoveries. Then, governments and corporations took the lead and progressively elevated the edifice of worldwide aerial travel, from the ground where life first originated, and all the way up in the air.
