Today I spent the day with my son at the Farnborough Airshow in England. He is three years old, and completely obsessed with airplanes (and robots, trains, cars, and everything mechanical), so I thought it would be a nice day out for him. Just to be a little subversive in this environment, I wore my "Age of Stupid" t-shirt, fully aware of the irony of celebrating aerospace technology as a climate change activist. However, the thing that really struck me about our time at the airshow was his reaction to the F-16 and F-18 flights. Despite the fact that he knew it was a show, and he could see from my reaction and the crowd's that he was not actually in danger, the noise of the afterburners terrified him. What effect does this terrifying sound have on kids exposed to overflights on a daily basis in Iraq and Afghanistan?
Today I spent the day with my son at the Farnborough Airshow in England. He is three years old, and completely obsessed with airplanes (and robots, trains, cars, and everything mechanical), so I thought it would be a nice day out for him. The airshow happens every two years, and is considered the premier aerospace event in the world. Billions of dollars change hands every day here. The show actually began on Monday the 19th, and runs through the 26th, with the weekend being for the tourists.
From the tourist areas at the bottom of the hill, which runs along the runways and aircraft displays, I could look up and see the arms dealers and muckety-mucks drinking champagne on the shady balconies of the chalets and pavilions. To be fair, many (or perhaps most) of the exhibitors are selling non-military aircraft, such as the airliners from Boeing and Airbus, and C-17 cargo planes that have been so important in humanitarian efforts like Haiti. However, there was a lot of scary stuff for sale as well, including technologies that let you see through walls, software to detect suspicious behavior
in crowds, and a menagerie of drones that can stay aloft for days and autonomously fire rockets at programmed targets.
Just to be a little subversive in this environment, I wore my "Age of Stupid" t-shirt, fully aware of the irony of attending an event celebrating aerospace technology as a climate change activist. It was interesting to see the displays talking about "green aviation", most notably efforts to develop algae-derived biofuels capable of making air travel carbon neutral. Of course, they run into some practical issues when faced with the amount of energy expended for each passenger on a longhaul flight (12,000 kWh). It would take a 315 sq. meter algae biofuel facility a year to produce enough fuel for just that one passenger! But that's another diary.
However, the thing that really struck me about our time at the airshow was my son's reaction to the F-16 and F-18 flights. Despite the fact that he knew it was a show, and he could see from my reaction and the crowd's that he was not actually in danger, the noise of the afterburners terrified him. While jumping on a trampoline in the Family Attraction area, he froze in place with his hands covering his ears as the warplanes roared nearby. The sound was loud, but not ear-splitting. It didn't hurt my ears, and didn't make him cry or detract from the great time he had, but I could feel the vibrations in my chest, and it got me thinking.
It occurred to me that there are children in Afganistan (and formerly in Iraq) that hear this sound on a daily basis. While the noise itself would be terrifying to those kids, the fact that their parents are afraid, and that they are in genuine danger of being killed by those jets must multiply its effect. The Air Force reports flying nearly 100 close-air support missions per day, mostly into the same areas around Kandahar and the Pakistan border. What effect does this terrifying sound have on kids exposed to overflights on a daily basis? If these planes are using the night vision equipment I saw on display at the airshow, some of these flights could be taking place at night, disrupting sleep.
The military and the news media like to talk about statistics like "sorties flown" and "hero flights", but even when our armed forces aren't blowing up journalists or weddings, or even firing any ordinance at all, what kind of damage are we doing to these people? Is it really worth it?