The similarities between these machines helps make the writer's point, beautifully. [Courtesy: Ben Younger]
Key Takeaways:
Modern society's focus on efficiency and consumption has led to a "profound loss of craft," diminishing product quality and worker connection, while prioritizing replacement over repair.
The article champions artisan-made items, like high-performance aircraft and cars, for their superior quality, longevity, and the deeper human connection fostered by their skilled creators.
Aviation is highlighted as a domain where traditional craftsmanship and the oral tradition of skill transfer still thrive, providing essential quality and safety through direct artisan-customer interaction.
The author advocates for preserving and rewarding artisanship, suggesting that corporations find ways to economically support high-quality, handcrafted production to prevent its extinction.
The two machines pictured above do not conform to the rules of economy of scale. Both are made by hand to some degree, and done so to exacting tolerances in small numbers by dedicated craftsmen. Both have horizontally-opposed, six-cylinder engines. Both require a certain level of mastery to fully extract their potential. Both attract the mechanically zealous.
Both fly.
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Ben Younger is a TV and film writer/director, avid motorcyclist and surfer—but it’s being a pilot that he treats as a second profession. Find him on Instagram @thisisbenyounger.
