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Essay on The Impact Of Aviation On American Military, The Economy And Society
Aviation is the term applied to the science and practice of flight in heavier-than-air craft, including airplanes, gliders, helicopters, ornithopters, convertiplanes, and VTOL (vertical takeoff and landing) and STOL. These are distinguished from lighter-than-air craft, which include balloons (free, usually spherical; and captive, usually elongated), and dirigible airships.
Operational aviation is grouped broadly into three classes: military aviation, commercial aviation, and general aviation. Military aviation includes all forms of flying by the armed forces strategic, tactical, and logistical. Aviation security became a major issue following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States in which hijackers crashed two commercial jetliners into the World Trade Center in New York City and another into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, outside Washington, D.C.
In November 2001 the United States Congress enacted the Aviation and Transportation Security Act in response to the attacks, which exposed a number of weaknesses in airport and airline security. The new law expanded the number of baggage screeners, imposed standards for their training, and made them federal employees for an interim period of time.
Beginning in January 2002 it required that all passenger luggage, including checked luggage, be examined. It also mandated that the end of 2002 must put all luggages through special explosives-detecting devices. The law increased the number of armed federal air marshals flying on domestic flights and required international airlines to turn over advance copies of their passenger lists to U.S. Customs officials for background checks to screen out suspected terrorists.
Aboard commercial airplanes, the law required that cockpits be fortified to prevent intruders from commandeering the airplanes, as happened during the September 11 attacks. A number of hijackers, who were all foreign nationals, had attended flight training schools in Florida. The new law mandated that flight instructors report the names of any foreign nationals....
