To air is human During the past half-century or so I’ve traveled in huge commercial jets, small, private airplanes, and by helicopter. Once I even paid real, American dollars for the privilege of taking half an airplane ride, submitting myself to a fall of almost two miles without benefit of mechanical conveyance, depending entirely on a glorified bed sheet to retard my vertically downward velocity enough to keep me from being pulverized on impact with the earth.