Friday, December 4, 2009…When do great achievements become commonplace?
From Bleriot's English Channel flight to Lindbergh's Atlantic crossing, history is full of feats that once seemed unimaginable. Many of these have become so commonplace as to be almost trivial today. The image of MAF KODIAK N9710M over Les Roches Douvres (the lighthouse mid-way between Guernsey and the French coast of Brittany) brings to mind a long history of achievement that spans the White Cliffs of Dover to the shores of Normandy. True, it's just another one of our aircraft working over another distant shore. But my, how history has changed and how aviation has changed it. (Geoff Jones, thank you very much for the photo.)
More and more KODIAKs are out in the world doing what we built them to do. They've flown west…covering the 2400 miles of open Pacific. N9710M charted the course northeast from Newfoundland to Greenland then Iceland and on to the UK.
That makes it the third KODIAK to cross the Atlantic.
While in the UK, KODIAK has taken in the sights (there aren’t many fortresses islands in Idaho).
It was also on display at the Duxford Airshow, next to aircraft much more familiar with British soil.
And, KODIAK made a promotional appearance at an old WWII airfield.
Anywhere we see grass reclaiming tarmac makes up feel right at home…even half a world away.
Soon N9710M will be on its way through Europe and Asia to its final destination. One more journey to make before it lands at its new home in Borneo.
We build KODIAK for this kind of adventure. We build them to lay bridges where none existed before. It's all becoming quite normal. But when seeing our KODIAK flying high over the English Channel becomes commonplace, it is only through the greatness of those who paved the way.
With respect to those who made our efforts possible, we press on. Our hope is that these efforts won't just make distant frontiers reachable, but like those who came before us, these efforts - like our KODIAK - will ultimately make the journey commonplace.