From the child jumping off the barn roof to Leonardo da Vinci studying the flight of birds, people imagined wings. On a flight in the 1960s from Chicago to California, the plane pulled away from the gate, stopped and went back. As we went from the romance of flying to “this is the best route from here to there,” poetry and laughter receded, and we began to hear stories of hijacking. Finally, word came that the government had met the hijackers’ demands, and a ransom would be delivered to the plane. His belt buckle set off an alarm, and he was hauled off to the right of the room for a pat-down inspection and interrogation.

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