A World of Superlatives
I love to view the world through the eyes of my eleven-year-old son. He fishes around on the iPad for interesting things, and something that has caught his attention is a series of ITV documentaries dealing with human endeavor–including the development of telescopes, tunnels, domes, and, just yesterday, he asked me to watch with him a documentary on large airplanes.
Astonishing!
For scale, it is almost impossible to imagine how human beings can manufacture such objects as the ones shown in the documentary, especially in light of the fact that heavier-than-air flight is really not much more then a century old!
The Antonov 124 is one of the world’s largest cargo aircraft. It has carried everything from battle tanks to other aircraft all over the world. In this documentary, the story-line involves a train being loaded on board and flown from Germany to India.
This educational documentary invites you to uncover the technological leaps that enabled this and other aircraft to be built. You will be fascinated by insights into how other airplanes have also been built, each one an epoch-making accomplishment in its own day, and each of which has yielded its significance to a yet larger craft.
Enriched with computer animated graphics, this video (and others in the series) will engage your attention for about fifty minutes!
Coming back to my son… it’s a wonderful opportunity to teach him that all of life belongs to God; He made the environment that we inhabit. We are to subdue the earth, taking the principles of physics and chemistry and applying them in a relationally integrated and useful way. In this He is glorified; and in this, we are enriched.
“The earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof.” Psalm 24:1
Since generating this post, I exchanged emails with Prof. Andy McIntosh, an expert in creation science as well as in aviation and aerodynamics. He pointed out that there is a larger sibling to this Antonov (124), the massive six-engined AN 225. In the screen below, you may view a 9-minute video of this giant lumbering gracefully into the air from Manchester airport in England. Thanks to Prof. Andy for this piece!
You may read more about Prof. Andy McIntosh, a member of the board of Truth in Science, here.
Also from Prof. McIntosh are the graphics at the end of this post, below the video link. Click the thumbnails to enlarge these high-quality graphics. Enjoy!
Image courtesy of Prof. Andy McIntosh
Image courtesy of Prof. Andy McIntosh
Image courtesy of Prof. Andy McIntosh
Image courtesy of Prof. Andy McIntosh
