D. Structures and Mechanisms · Flight

Aviation and Society: Impacts Near and Far

D1.1 A2.2 A3.1 A3.3About 45 minutes

Learning goals

I can describe positive and negative impacts of aviation technologies on people and communities.
I can explain impacts from local (Ontario and Canada) and global perspectives.
I can describe how drones and computer code are changing flight.
I can name jobs, including skilled trades, that use flight science, and describe a Canadian contribution to aviation.

Words to know

aviation
Everything to do with flying machines: designing, building, flying and looking after them.

society
People living together in communities, towns, countries and the world.

impact
An effect, good or bad, that one thing has on another.

perspective
A point of view: how a situation looks to a certain person or group.

fly-in community
A community with no year-round road connection, so people and supplies usually arrive by plane.

drone
A flying machine with no pilot on board. It is flown by remote control or by a computer program.

skilled trade
A job that needs special hands-on training, like an aircraft maintenance engineer or an electrician.

Flight changed the world

Think about the last time you ate fresh fruit in the middle of a snowy Canadian winter, got a package in the mail quickly, or heard of a family member flying to visit. Flying machines probably played a part.

Today you will assess (judge carefully) how aviation affects people, both locally (in Ontario and Canada) and globally (around the world). Like most technologies, aviation has impacts that are good and impacts that cause problems.

Local impacts: flight in Ontario and Canada

Fly-in communities. Many First Nations communities in Northern Ontario have no year-round road. People travel by plane, and planes bring in food, mail, medicine, building supplies and fuel. In winter, some communities can also use winter roads built over frozen lakes and land. Because flying is expensive, food and supplies in fly-in communities often cost much more than in southern cities.
Health care. Air ambulances (planes and helicopters) carry very sick or injured people from remote places to hospitals quickly.
Firefighting. Water bombers skim across a lake, scoop up water and drop it on forest fires. Canadair water bombers, designed in Quebec, are used in Canada and in many other countries.
Jobs. Airports, airlines and aircraft factories employ many people in Ontario and Quebec.
Problems. People who live near busy airports hear a lot of noise. Building and expanding airports uses up land that could be farms or nature. Flying is too expensive for some families.

A small twin-propeller plane on a gravel airstrip beside a lake and forest, with a cart of supply boxes. — In fly-in communities with no year-round road, planes like this bring in food, mail, medicine and supplies. AI-generated image

A fly-in community has no year-round road. Planes connect it to a bigger centre all year, and winter roads can only be used when lakes and land are frozen. Flying everything in costs a lot, so prices are higher.

Global impacts

Connecting people: families who live in different countries can visit each other in a day.
Trade: fresh food, flowers, medicines and parts are flown around the world quickly.
Help in emergencies: planes carry rescue teams, food and medical supplies after earthquakes and floods.
Tourism: many communities earn money from visitors who arrive by air.
Problems: illnesses can spread around the world faster because people travel quickly. Burning jet fuel adds pollution and greenhouse gases (you will look at this closely next lesson).

Perspective	A possible positive impact	A possible negative impact
A family in a fly-in First Nations community	Planes bring food, medicine and visitors all year	High cost of flights and of flown-in food
A family living beside a big airport	Jobs at the airport nearby	Noise from planes day and night
A farmer exporting fresh blueberries	Can sell to customers in other countries	Shipping by air costs a lot
A traveller visiting relatives overseas	Can get there in less than a day	Tickets can be expensive
A person who needs urgent surgery in a remote town	An air ambulance can get them to a hospital fast	Bad weather can delay flights

The same technology looks different from different perspectives

New technologies: drones and code (A2.2)

Drones are flying machines with no pilot on board. People use them to:

film sports and nature, and map land for building and farming
check power lines, bridges and forests without climbing
help search and rescue teams look for lost people
test deliveries of medicine and packages, including to remote places

Drones also raise new questions: privacy (a drone with a camera could fly over someone's backyard), noise and safety. Canada has rules for drones, such as keeping them away from airports and away from crowds.

Code is everywhere in aviation. Autopilot computers run code that keeps a plane on course and at the right height. Computers help plan flight routes and forecast the weather. Code also runs flight simulators that pilots use for training.

Careers in flight (A3.1)

Pilots fly passenger, cargo, bush, firefighting and air ambulance planes.
Air traffic controllers guide planes safely through busy skies.
Aircraft maintenance engineers (a skilled trade) inspect and repair planes so they are safe to fly. Avionics technicians work on a plane's electronics.
Aerospace engineers design planes, drones and engines, using lift, weight, thrust and drag every day.
Meteorologists forecast the weather that pilots depend on.
Airport firefighters, flight attendants, drone operators and many more.

Contributions to aviation (A3.3)

Elsie MacGill was the first woman in Canada to earn a degree in electrical engineering (1927). In 1929 she became the first woman in North America to earn a master's degree in aeronautical (aircraft) engineering. At a factory in Fort William, Ontario (now part of Thunder Bay), she designed a training plane called the Maple Leaf Trainer II, and during the Second World War she led the production of Hawker Hurricane fighter planes there. People called her the "Queen of the Hurricanes".

First Nations and Inuit communities also shape aviation in the North today. Some airlines that serve northern communities are owned by First Nations or Inuit, such as Wasaya Airways, a First Nations-owned airline based in Thunder Bay, and Air Inuit, owned by the Inuit of Nunavik in northern Quebec through their own organization. These airlines connect communities and create local jobs.

Elsie MacGill's firsts on a timeline. Each mark is 5 years; the shaded band shows the Second World War (1939 to 1945), when she led the production of Hawker Hurricanes in Fort William, Ontario.

Worked example

Let's assess an impact from two perspectives

A town plans to start a drone delivery service for medicine to farms and cottages. Assess it from two perspectives.

Perspective 1, an older person living on a farm far from a pharmacy: medicine arrives quickly without a long drive, especially in a snowstorm. Positive.
Perspective 2, a family whose house is under the drone route: drones buzz overhead; they may worry about privacy and noise. Negative.
Weigh it up: the health benefits are important. Rules could reduce the problems: routes that avoid houses, no cameras recording backyards, flights only in daytime.

The service has strong benefits for people far from pharmacies, and some costs for neighbours. A good decision would keep the benefits and add rules to reduce the problems.

Worked example

Let's sort local and global impacts

Sort these impacts of aviation into local or global: (a) a water bomber saves cottages near a northern Ontario lake; (b) mangoes from another continent arrive in Ontario stores; (c) noise for people living near Toronto's airport; (d) an illness spreads to many countries in a few weeks.

(a) It affects one place in Ontario: local.
(b) It connects countries around the world: global.
(c) It affects people in one neighbourhood: local.
(d) It affects many countries: global.

(a) local, (b) global, (c) local, (d) global.

Just for fun

Pilots and air traffic controllers spell words with a special alphabet so letters are not mixed up on the radio. In it, PIZZA is "Papa, India, Zulu, Zulu, Alfa". Try spelling your own name that way!

Hands-on activity

Impacts web and family interview

You need: a large sheet of paper, markers and a family member or neighbour to interview.

Write AVIATION in the middle of the page. Draw lines out to six bubbles: travel, trade, health, jobs, the North and drones.
In each bubble, write one positive and one negative impact. Use a plus sign (+) and a minus sign (−).
Interview a grown-up (in person or by phone). Ask: "Have you ever flown or sent something by air? How did it help you? Was there anything difficult about it (cost, delays, noise)?" Write down two things they said.
Add a star next to the impact you think matters most. Write 2 or 3 sentences explaining your choice, and say whether you are thinking locally or globally.

What to look for: at least six impacts, with both positives and negatives; the interview notes; and a reason for the starred impact that mentions who is affected.

Your turn

Give one positive impact of aviation on people in remote northern communities.

Give one negative impact of aviation on people who live near a busy airport.

What is a fly-in community?

Name two ways drones are used.

What does an autopilot do?

Name a skilled trade in aviation.

Who was Elsie MacGill?

More practice: warm-up

What does "aviation" mean?

True or false: drones always have a pilot on board.

What do water bombers do?

Local or global: a family flies to another country to see grandparents.

Which job guides planes safely through busy skies?

More practice: on your own

Why does food often cost more in fly-in communities?

Give one reason people might worry about camera drones.

How can fast air travel be both helpful and harmful for health around the world?

Why do airlines owned by First Nations or Inuit matter to northern communities?

Choose one aviation job. Explain how it uses the four forces of flight.

Challenge

A city wants to build a new runway. Name three groups whose perspectives should be heard, and one concern or hope each might have.

Warmer winters can make winter roads open for a shorter time. Explain how this could affect fly-in communities.

Do you think the benefits of aviation are bigger than the problems? Give a balanced answer with at least two points on each side.

Check your understanding

Quiz

What is a fly-in community?

Which is a negative impact of aviation for people near an airport?

Which is a global impact of aviation?

Which job is a skilled trade that keeps planes safe?

Elsie MacGill is known for:

Which concern is often raised about drones with cameras?

For parents and teachers

Big idea (D1.1): students assess the impacts of aviation technologies on society from local and global perspectives. A good assessment names who is affected, gives both benefits and problems, and makes a reasoned judgement.

Connections: A2.2 (drones, autopilot and code in aviation), A3.1 (careers, including the skilled trade of aircraft maintenance engineer), A3.3 (Elsie MacGill, and First Nations- and Inuit-owned northern airlines).

How to help: do the interview together. If your family has never flown, talk about packages, mail or food that arrived by air, or about air ambulances. Encourage your child to describe northern First Nations and Inuit communities as present-day communities with their own businesses and decisions, not only as places that "need help".

Common difficulties:

One-sided answers. Ask: "Who might see this differently?"
Mixing up local and global. Local = here (a town, Ontario, Canada); global = across countries and the world.
Drones: if your family has a drone, review Canada's drone safety rules together before flying.