Living the Aviation Life

There is an indescribable magic in all things that fly, no matter if they are a small bird or the biggest airplane in the world. The act of movement that is so powerful that it can allow a creature or an object to leave the constraints of the ground and soar high into the sky always fascinated me. When I look back, I think I can remember myself aged only 4 or 5, being completely mesmerized as I watched birds fly in and out of our garden. In many ways, I believe that those experiences already defined me for the rest of my life and the career in aviation I would choose. The second big influence was my grandfather, who fought in the Second World War as a fighter pilot.

My parents were both musicians and loved the artistic aspects of life, but my granddad, which lived just down the street from our house, captured my imagination with his war stories. He told me about the aircrafts they used to fly over European battles and how he entered and won dogfights against the opposing forces. Then, even though I was a child, I could imagine myself in one of those engines, roaring through clouds and attacking enemy aircrafts.

Then, I used to think that I would definitely become a career pilot like him, but as soon as I started school, I also started wearing glasses, which ended my dreams of flying fighter aircrafts. However, I soon discovered a gift for designing and building things, especially things with wings. With the help of my granddad, I started a hobby that involved making model airplanes.

As I began to get older, so did the models became more and more elaborate. In my teenage years, I started competing with my models at shows that included airports but also hobby builders like me. At that point, I realized I wanted to start designing real aircrafts when I grow up. This guided my decision to enroll in a bunch of engineering courses in a university and finish with fantastic grades and a high knowledge of aviation engineering.

Thanks to these factors, I easily landed a job at a huge aerospace company. Here, I got a chance to delve deep into the process of creating aircraft. As an engineer specializing in drag and lift, I began working on the wings of light aircraft at first, providing design and physics solutions that would make these vehicles more stable and more durable. The process includes designing solutions using computer simulation, after which comes the fun part of building prototypes. These are in my case wings or their parts, which are then tried and tested in a wind tunnel that simulates conditions during flights.

This is the most interesting part of the job because I can easily imagine how all that occurs in the air, high above the ground once the aircrafts are created. In this phase, designs are changed and streamlined, making room for ever improving airplanes. From this, the overall safety and effectiveness of aircrafts are slowly but surely elevated, which is a benefit for all those who fly, as well as those on the ground.

Naturally, I was consumed by my job, knowing that my thoughts and ideas were translated into real and tangible products that could take people to the sky. Many of the aircrafts I helped design ended up being used in airports on a regular basis which provides me still to this day with some much pride and happiness.

Of course, I sometimes wonder would have I been happier as a pilot like my grandfather was? There is no way I could ever know this, but deep down, I realize that I was offered a chance so few people get. My job is to build aircrafts and there is something truly incredible about that fact. When I observe my creation, I feel something similar to the notion of sitting behind those commands and gliding through the clouds. In both cases, I am certain that I would feel a sense of fulfillment, directly connected with those things I felt when I was a child; it is all the same magic of flight, both building aircrafts and flying them.

Today, I am a part of that same magic and there is nothing I would rather do in the entire world. Because of this fact, I’m grateful for every day in my life that allows me to do the same and with it, the notion that I am truly living an aviation dream.