Airplane Ballet

I was parked at the tarmac along with all the other hundreds of passengers to Tokyo, in the plane. And to my left was the runway, just where the planes approach their 300 kmph speed and transition to lift off. I understand now what a busy airport means. Eighteen planes took off in rapid succession. And do I mean rapid. Every 30 seconds.

I've seen planes take off before of course, in life and movies. I know how it works of course whether you want to go Newton/Bernoulli/Pascal on it. Yet to see them all happily defy gravity, effortlessly, strongly and powerfully was something else.

Floop, floop, floop, they tripped up and arced away. One stage left, one forward, one stage right and so on in succession. Like a corps de ballet. Or if I was to be less flamboyant in my similes and metaphors I would admit there was something simple to it all. Because that's what planes do; fly.

If you love an airplane, set it free.