Late one evening, after a hard day's work in Jamestown, Virginia, England was telling his young colony a bedtime story.
"The peasants begged St. George to slay the dragon, for it was ravishing their kingdom and eating their maidens," England recited from memory.
"But England," America interrupted, "Why couldn't the peasants fight the dragon by themselves?"
"Because, America," England explained patiently, "dragons are very hard to fight. They have thick scales that can't be pierced and they fly high in the sky, farther than we can reach."
"Then you can just shoot them, right? Like how you shoot turkeys and people?"
England turned pink. "Well, they didn't have guns at the time of the story."
America looked confused. "Then what did they have? Bows and arrows?"
"Well, they had swords." It suddenly occurred to England that America had never seen a sword before.[1]
"Oh. So why didn't they just fight with the swords in the air?" America asked, stumbling over the new word.
"How are they going to do that, silly? People don't have wings like birds and dragons. We can't fly," England chuckled.
"People don't have fins like fish, but you still came here all the way across the sea from your house," America pointed out.
England was taken aback by the young colony's unexpected logic. "That's different," he sputtered, "We couldn't swim all that way, so we made ships. That's how we managed to travel by sea."
"Then that's how we do it!" America's bright eyes gleamed with excitement. "We make a ship that flies through the air!"
England smiled. "Sorry, America," he said, "But we've already tried that before and…"
"Really?" America perked up even more.
"Well, yes," England admitted, " China tried to use rockets a while back and Italy had a man who designed a sort of hovering device, but they never led anywhere.[2] So we've learned to accept the fact that it can't be done."
"Oh," America said disappointedly. He deflated for a moment before adopting a determined look on his face. "England, we're going to make it happen. We are going to make a ship that flies."
"What is this we you're talking about? Because I'm certainly not going to spend my time making a ship that flies!"
"Well if you're not going to help me, then I'll do it myself. Or I'll ask France for help."
England rolled his eyes. "Why do you even want to fly? We can go everywhere we need to go with ships and carts."
"Nu-uh!'
England raised his eyebrows.
"We can't go there." America pointed out the window.
"What? To the moon?"
America nodded.
"Of course we can't go to the moon! That's just ridiculous!"
"If we make a ship that flies we can!"
"Okay, America," England replied, shaking his head, "If you want to make a flying ship to travel to the moon you can."
"I will then!"
"Alright, but you're going to have to start designing another day because it's bedtime."
"Aren't you going to finish the story?"
"I suppose so," England said with mock exasperation, "Now where was I? Ah, yes. So St. George promised to slay the dragon and save the kingdom…"
Later, after America had fallen asleep, England went over the conversation in his head. What a bizarre little boy, England thought. I'm sure he'll forget about the whole thing tomorrow.
But America never did.
Author's note:
[1] I added this just because I realized that guns were invented before the English colonized North America.
[2] The Chinese did try to fly with rockets strapped to chairs. And I bet you can guess which Italian inventor/painter/ninja turtle I'm referencing here.
This story will be about America's involvement in aviation. Each chapter will relate to an important or interesting moment in aviation history. As stated before, the chapters will involve America, but I may change the point of view to another character as I did in this introduction. If you have a certain historical event that you think I should write a chapter about, leave it in the comments. I hope those of you reading this will continue to follow my story or at least comment.