Bodies In Motion: Exploring the Human Limits of Future Travel
The limits of travel are defined not by what vehicles can do, but by what vehicles can do to us. So how much can we take? On the morning of October 25, 1999, captain Michael Kling and his first officer, Stephanie Bellegarrigue, piloted a Learjet Model 35 out of Orlando and set a heading for Dallas, where their passengers-the professional golfer Payne Stewart, Stewart's agents Robert Fraley and Van Ardan, and golf-course architect Bruce Borland-were planning to build a new course. The Learjet, a plane often used for such trips, was a marvel of engineering: It could climb 4,340 feet in a minute and cruise at up to 530 mph. In 1976 a similar Lear, the Model 36, set a round-the-world speed record. As the crew headed north, they received instructions from a Jacksonville controller, first to climb to 26,000 feet, then 39,000. "Three nine zero bravo alpha," the first officer acknowledged....