tofuwatch.com

When cars could fly and pedaling actually meant piloting an aircraft

 

 

 

My son and I took advantage of Thursday’s free admission evening at The Museum of Flight.

He ran around. I followed behind. My wife managed to have some quiet time on her own.

We hadn’t visited the Seattle-area museum in a while. So, he loved looking at the different types of aircraft, including some that can land directly on water, and sitting in the cockpit of one.

But as I walked around, I realized yet again that innovation is waiting to spring out of the confinement that this Great Recession has brought in a wicked way.

It’s similar to the number of unemployed people in the United States who are ready to resume full-time work, boost the economy and move with all of our might to bring life back to some semblance of normal.

In a sporting phrase: We’re ready to get back in the game.

Just when this will happen remains to be seen.

That’s part of the problem this country faces. But as we know, certainty of better times or a high confidence that it will arrive can give way to many positive things.

So as I walked by the airplanes, why did I think that innovation is ready to play a role again in the U.S. economy?

Two reasons.

First, I spotted the Moulton B. Taylor Aerocar, a dual-use, rear-propeller vehicle that has a red bubble-shaped automobile in the front and the wings extending from the back.

It’s a car that could fly – and once did. Today, it looks like the brand name and the idea of the Aerocar continues.

Taylor, who went by Molt, was responsible for several models, which could be transformed from car to plane in about 15 minutes, according to The Museum of Flight. His prototype was born in 1949.

After World War II, many people longed for having an airplane in every suburban house, the museum noted in information about Taylor’s creation.

As you recall, humans also have invented cars that are boats.

But instead of saying that a flying car was impossible to build, Taylor achieved his goal.

His long-term goal of mass producing the aerocar with a major company never manifested.

But I bet if you ask his relatives, friends and neighbors, they’d probably say one thing – and say it with pride: “Yeah, he actually got that car to fly.”

The second reason why I think innovation is ready to leap from our brains and materialize before us is the human-powered aircraft known as the Gossamer Albatross II.

A museum docent explained that the model on display is an actual, working aircraft. But it was the second one and not the one that a person piloted for 22 miles over the English Channel in 1979 in less than three hours.

CBS News looks at how human power could be used in other ways.

Still, the docent said, this human-powered aircraft flew in the Astrodome, apparently the only aircraft to do so.

If I was back in California and talking with my childhood friends – all of us enjoyed riding our long-distance, mountain and racing bikes – we’d probably sit around and entertain a simple question in the context of the Gossamer: “So, do you think you can make that thing fly?”

If given the chance, one of us probably would give it a try.

One question that I still have with both vehicles is why the designers opted to put the propeller in the back.

I note these two examples because it’s easy, as I have done a few times, to point to innovation in the Japanese auto industry or what’s happening in China.

Though the recent Tokyo Motor Show saw the number of attendees drop by half due to the recession, according to media reports, Japanese auto companies managed to roll out concept cars that were solar and electric powered.

But the Seattle-area, as we know, is a hotbed of innovative, technologically-inclined, brainy people.

Right?

The big names are here: Microsoft, Boeing, Amazon – not to mention all the smaller companies that rely on humans to help all of us take the next step into the future.

My wife and I also marvel at the fact that Washington state has managed to have many successful, national companies despite only having a total population of about 6.5 million.

In China, a metropolitan area alone could have that population. 

Also, Taylor grew up in Longview, Wash. and graduated from the University of Washington.

For decades, the U.S. West Coast has been a hotbed of innovation and moving technology forward in fascinating ways.

There is a reason why Sand Hill Road, near Stanford University, is known in the technology and venture capital communities.

I also know that Seattle-area businesspeople must have the near future on their minds.

Eventually, hiring – and I use this term without any timeline attached to it - will have to pick up. Seattle-area companies want to be positioned at the right place to be able to resume productivity, research, design and innovation.

When I was a business journalist from late 2004 to early 2006, I saw real estate in the Seattle area boom.

Why?

Economists told me that developers were ready to re-enter the market after the recession that ended in 2001.

I reported on eye-popping prices for real estate, including the $191 million sale of Harbor Steps in 2005.

I recognize that the real estate bubble was one cause of this recession. But after enough negative news, businesses will be willing to resume life in a more normal fashion.

Or at least, I hope they will.

The missing piece of the puzzle, of course, is access to investment dollars.

People also must see enough income growth and hiring numbers in order to open their wallets.

So, is it incumbent upon those who now have money to take action, enter the market and start spending their dollars?

I leave that answer up to you.

I realize that it is hard to have a famous name that is associated with wealth. People often want things from you.

But smart, educated, motivated people are ready to resume full-time work.

Now, if I had millions of dollars and was in the position to circulate more money during the Great Recession, would I invest it in new companies with the hope of spurring more hiring and research and development?

In other words: Would I enter the market?

I’d probably gather my economic advisors, study the market, entertain the risks and seriously consider it.

Of course, I wouldn’t do anything to put my family in economic jeopardy.

Given the number of unemployed people in the country – and that hiring is expected to lag behind the official end of the recession – the move couldn’t hurt anymore than what we as a country have endured recently.

One way to break the psychology of economic fear is to circulate privately-held money and state publicly and frequently why you’re doing so.

Below, I’ve included a few more photographs of our visit to The Museum of Flight.

It rained Thursday evening. But it was great to get out of the house.