Quality Essay

Quality is something used and observed all around us but, does anyone ever stop to actually determine what quality means and how it differs from object to object? Webster’s defines quality as “A degree or grade of excellence or worth” which sums up only a small fragment of what quality actually means. Quality is determined by the personality and experience of the person that is using the term, thus making it a totally different word for every single person or occasion. This change in definition is interesting to observe when analyzing the quality of the old versus the new.

The argument over whether old or new is better to have has been going on since the time that material objects came into existence. Old objects have memories which are what gives them a high amount of quality to their owners. This is why the terms vintage or classic are commonly used in describing an older airplane or car because those descriptions show that the object has a package tagged along with it full of experience, problems, as well as just persisting through time itself. This package is most prevalent with airplanes because of the extensive records kept on the planes history and also because airplanes last much, much longer than cars due to the strict maintenance requirements. Newer objects have sometimes never been seen before thus giving them quality based on the unknown and can also bring more advanced technology and safety.
The best place to start examining the quality of old airplanes versus new airplanes is from the start. What makes the old airplanes that were produced by thousands of hands working together have any more or less worth than the newer planes that were produced by the more meticulous machines? Quality goes down to the lowest stages of production. The older airplanes can be said to have much more quality than the new because each plane was built by a group of individuals who forever would have a special link to that plane and loved and cared about making the plane perfect for its owner. This level of care was especially common in people that made aircraft for the military because they knew that the life of the pilot and whoever or whatever he was carrying was in their hands and not to mention the well being of the country in times of war. The best example of this unique, hands on quality was seen best in the Rosie the Riveter campaign of World War II. Others would disagree and say that the older airplanes are of much less quality because of the great room for error in making planes by hand. The newest systems of airplane production give up the personal aspects for the speed and safety that comes from robots and computers that make no mistakes which gives them quality in reliability. It is also possible to argue that the newer planes still have that same uniqueness as the old planes since most interiors of planes are customizable. One constant of quality in all this production of new and old is the training and expertise of the A+P (airframe and power plant) mechanics that have had much of the same knowledge throughout the years except for minor differences between some power plants.

As I said before, quality is totally determined by the personality and experience of a person and that comes into play the most when deciding the level of quality through the performance of the aircrafts. The newer aircraft are much smoother and faster but with the rising costs in today’s society this also means engines and turbines that produce less noise and lower emissions. This can be taken one of two ways. Lovers of older aircraft get a rush from the sound and smells of the old rotary engines and huge piston engines. The quality is all in the way that engine just roars as it goes by and the old saying, “low and slow.” These old engines were also far from perfect which caused them to have very distinctive sounds and no one engine was the same which goes back to quality in uniqueness. But this is not just limited to the older planes. The newer turbine engines in airplanes today are much more economical as well as sleek which brings a different type of quality that comes with the new airplanes. They too have a very distinct sound that is just pure testosterone and cannot be denied. The newer engines also triple the older engines in speed and make for a much smoother ride. This brings up another point which is the quality of the ride you get from the older or newer planes. The older planes, with their piston engines, had a more turbulent ride to them and were also more rugged. Older planes did not have the hydraulics and electronic technology of today and thus the pilot was flying the plane literally pulling cables connected to the yoke and having to use his own strength. This brings a sense of being connected to the plane that the new planes cannot muster. Talk to any lover of vintage airplanes and these reasons combined would be why they love the older planes and see so much quality in them. The new planes are smooth and quick which has great amounts of quality to the people that use planes for a type of transportation. Also, the use of fly-by-wire and hydraulics has greatly improved the ease of flying for the pilots and can bring a sense of quality because the plane becomes more of a hobby rather than a job.

Planes throughout their existence have always had a purpose. This is what brings the quality of the new and old together. The first airplanes were mostly used in the military while the newer use is mostly for the transportation of goods and persons. The pilots of World War I, World War II, and Korea had the reassurance that they would make it back home to their families because they believed in the quality of their aircraft. Today the traveling dad or mom that just finished their business trip also know they will be able to return home as well all because of quality. Robert Pirsig tried to define quality in Zen and Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and was unsuccessful not because he was unable to find quality but because it is impossible to define for society as a whole. He did bring up the two types of people in this world though and I believe each has their own views on quality. The romantics are the people that love the old because of the figures that the vintage airplanes have become as well as their simplicity compared to today’s aircraft. The old airplanes bring stories that the new cannot and the romantics love being involved with the curiosity of what the planes have been through. The classics like the new because of the technology and efficiency. Classics are like engineers in which they all think about efficiency and why things work the way they do. The plethora of new technology and complexity brings the opportunity to ask questions and explore new things which is what classics love to do. Quality can be defined by the individual based off of what they believe and have experienced. For quality to be defined for people as a whole would make individuality and thought obsolete.

Bio:

Brandon Allgood is an Aerospace Engineer. He is from Alpharetta GA and has lived around the area his whole life. Brandon is part of the NROTC at Georgia Tech as well as the Yellow Jacket Flying Club.