Aviation has revolutionized humanity in a matter of decades. It is now possible to get from any point on the earth to any other point within 24 hours, as long as there’s an airfield nearby. Many travelers today associate airplane rides with long security lines, cramped legroom, and lost baggage, but it’s a miracle of human ingenuity that commercial aviation even exists the way it does today. Flying is one of the safest transportation methods available, and it’s incredibly affordable for what it is.

I didn’t take my first flight until I was 13 years old, when I flew on a United Airlines Airbus A319 from San Francisco to Washington Dulles on a school trip to visit the nation’s capital. Since then, I’ve developed a love of traveling and have been to 50 different countries, flying into, from, or within almost all of them. This kind of world travel would hardly be practical (if at all possible) without modern aviation.

More than flying itself, I love the travel and cultural connection that it enables. But over the course of hundreds of plane rides and being in and out of airports, I’ve also developed a fascination with the world of aviation, which encompasses so many different aspects worth delving into. There are the physical planes themselves (an ever-evolving piece of technology), along with their navigation and traffic control systems, but the world of commercial airlines also encompasses numerous different optimization and business problems including pricing, classes, network/destination planning, crew scheduling, airports, frequent flyer programs, regulation, maintenance, food/beverage catering, and digital technology. Many of these are directly visible to passengers, while others are hidden away; but all of them together make up the flying experience we know today.

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