| The invention of the airplane in the early 20th century | | | | expensive as the weight of aircrafts lessened without |
| heralded a future of travel that would bring countries | | | | compromising the integrity of the vehicles thereby |
| seemingly closer to each other. From the Wright | | | | making these planes sturdier, safer and more viable for |
| Brother's first flight in 1902 to the first solo transatlantic | | | | carriers to invest. |
| flight by Charles Lindenbergh in 1927 aboard the Spirit | | | | These days consumers are kings when it comes to |
| of St. Louis, the world became aware of the potentials | | | | traveling by air. There are many airlines that offer |
| of airplane and air travel. And to this day, the | | | | great deals for travel as long as the booking is made |
| possibilities of commercial outer space travel are still | | | | ahead of time. Sweden Airlines have also collaborated |
| there, waiting to be conquered. | | | | in their efforts to have more people travel and |
| Adapting technologies have made it more economical | | | | mileages from traveling from such airlines may be |
| and cheaper for us to travel. Some adaptations were | | | | redeemed in other airlines. One such beneficiary of this |
| due to painful experiences. The De Havilland, a very | | | | is the Swedish National Carrier, SAS, or Scandinavian |
| popular airplane company in the 50's, was responsible | | | | Air Systems. SAS is part of the Star Alliance which is |
| for the change of the shape of airline windows. Initially | | | | a mega collaboration between so many national |
| using rectangular windows, they found out that this | | | | carriers among them Spain, New Zealand, Thailand, |
| type of shape gave rise to stress fractures and did | | | | Croatia, Egypt, Poland, Germany, South Africa, |
| cause fatal air crashes. Because of this design flaw, | | | | Portugal, Brussels, Canada and Austria just to name a |
| later models use oval shape windows to diffuse the | | | | few. These airlines can interchange their mileage so |
| possible areas of stress. This shape is still being used | | | | that their users can fly to different places in the world. |
| today. The utilization of jet engine machines also made | | | | In the same aspect that a frequent user of Thai |
| possible the increase of carrying capacity of today's | | | | Airlines can redeem his or her mileage in order to go to |
| aircraft and shortened the traveling time. There were | | | | Sweden, a Swedish user of SAS can redeem his or |
| also new developments in traveling faster. The | | | | her mileage and travel to Egypt for instance. This |
| Concorde was the first and only commercial aircraft | | | | situation is a win-win situation for both the airline |
| that traveled faster than the speed of sound, making | | | | carriers and their consumers, enabling them to choose |
| the London to New York flight shorter than half the | | | | which places to visit using the existing mileage or |
| time it took for the 747. Advances in carbon and resin | | | | gaining more mileage. |
| based materials also made commercial flying less | | | | |