If Man Were Meant

Orville Wright once said, "The airplane stays up because it doesn't have time to fall." While that's poetic and hints a little at lift/weight ratios, any engineer worth their salt will tell you there's so much more happening on than that. Aerospace technology has come so far in so very short time. Whether it's the people who make aerospace fittings or the caterers who provide meals in flight, industries have blossomed around aviation. Flight has gone from a fanciful notion to a daily occurrence in less than a century. Local travel grew into intercontinental flight in a matter of decades. By comparison, note how transoceanic sailing took millennia to become familiar, dating from the time when humans first used boats. People fly now as quickly as they ride. Many even commute to work via air flight. As the man of steel said, in no less than two movies, "statistically speaking, it's still the safest way to travel."

Aeronautics has an exciting and colorful history. Everyone knows the Wright brothers' story of finally getting a confirmed sustained flight off the ground in Kitty Hawk. There were, of course, several lesser known individuals who came close to the feat before and after them. Once the technology proved sound, however, Europeans outpaced the Americans in development. The continent had produced thousands of planes when America barely had hundreds. The United States stepped up the pace with the advent of World War I. While the government initiated most of the contracts, private industry delivered the work product.

Entrepreneurs continued the businesses once hostilities ended, and a private industry flourished. Tourism, travel, package delivery, and communications became driving forces for profitability until aviation rose to be the nation's top employer. Manufacturers divided the engineering and machining duties into sub-industries. It spread out the costs and increased efficiency. Today hundreds of vibrant businesses contribute parts and labor to everything from an Airbus carrier to a military assault chopper.

The driving imagination in today's aeronautics concerns itself with fuel efficiencies, sustainability, and perhaps most importantly, improved materials. One of the greatest challenges of heavier than air flight has always been making the machines as light as possible. Towards that end, design and parts manufacturing must meet precise specifications. Nanometers make the difference. A finely crafted component is worth its weight in gold.

A company that holds diligently to the needs and specs of aerospace technology is Custom Fittings, a West Yorkshire, UK company. They've spent more than thirty years producing off the shelf and bespoke aerospace fittings. They have an impressive international reputation and are known for delivering high-quality parts that meet the most exacting tolerances.