ML138490
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Subject: (Interview). Subtitle: Peter McMillan. Timecode In: 00:01:06. Timecode out: 00:34:41. Notes: Airplanes; Flight. Radio Expeditions Peter McMillan/ Don Smith January 5, 1999 DS 00:02:15 Who are you?00:02:17 PM 00:02:18 My name is Peter McMillan and I have uh, I¿m a I was an aviation historian or an aviation enthusiast and I have conducted a couple of flights across remote parts of the world in antique airplanes in an effort to relive some of those past adventures and really get some real life experience for what the past was like. DS 00:02:45 Airplanes made some obvious contributions to exploring.00:02:51 PM 00:02:52 Indeed they did. I think the aerial perspective was in a funny sense I think it shrunk the world faster than any other medium of transportation or technology. What is most remarkable is that all of it has happened in this century. DS 00:03:11 It allowed people to go into areas where people hadn¿t been before.00:03:15 PM 00:03:16 Absolutely, I think also to communicate in a method that they had not been able to do so before. But I think another thing that¿s interesting about the advent of aviation in the early part of the century is that the maritime powers like Great Britain and so forth they dominated commerce and military activities and the advent of the airplane enabled smaller nations with lesser resources to be suddenly spread out as broadly and the air, commerce of the air was open to everybody. DS 00:03:56 Aviation allowed us to explore the skies. What is up there for us to see that we don¿t see in a 747? 00:04:07 PM 00:04:09 I think that most of the expeditions that we have done, flying these old open-cockpit biplanes, I¿d say more than anything else it gives you a chance to see that the earth is composed of villages and it¿s a little difficult to explain but when you are flying over these villages at 60-70 mph in countries such as India or Indonesia or Burma, wherever they might be, you really get a clear perspective of cultural issues by seeing the way that they¿ve organized their villages and how permanent the villages are and what their means of transportation. So you can gather all kinds of insights but most of all you realize that the earth is made up of villages not cities. 00:04:56 DS 00:04:57 There¿s a pure joy in flying I guess.00:05:00 PM 00:05:01 Absolutely, and particularly flying old machines, there¿s quite a bit of technique involved and it takes some time to become comfortable. It really feels like you¿re doing something, it¿s a very active process and your mind is attentive to it at all times. DS 00:05:18 What is it about vintage airplanes that attracts you to them? 00:05:21 PM 00:05:23 I think in a sense that vintage airplanes were designed in an period where style was as important as efficiency and styling was ¿ styling and sturdiness because obviously, antique planes were meant to be operated off unimproved fields or grass strips or muddy paddocks so they had to be very rugged but at the same time there was a very strong sense of styling as with many products in the 20¿s and 30¿s and 40¿s. And little by little that¿s given way to efficiency and to what actually functions as opposed to what really is pleasing to the eye. DS 00:06:01 So that¿s why you prefer older planes? 00:06:03 PM 00:06:04 That and also they represent a period when aviators were separated from the ordinary men because they could do something that was very special. DS 00:06:15 We tend to look at flying as a safe thing to do. It wasn¿t like that in the early days though.00:06:20 PM 00:06:21 No, and I think that had less to do with technology of the aircraft themselves than it was to, with forecasting weather which is obviously the pilot¿s worst enemy. Clearly meteorology and science have advanced dramatically but really it was reall... (Notes truncated)
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- 23 Apr 2005 - Ben Brotman
- Digitized
- 23 Apr 2005 - Ben Brotman
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- 23 Apr 2005 - Ben Brotman