As in other walks of life, in aviation we pay an inordinate amount of attention to “firsts,” that is, the first time that something has been pulled off. Roger Bannister? First sub-four minute mile. Current world record holder for the mile? Like me, you probably have no idea. It’s the same with Sir Edmund Hillary, Sandra Day O’Connor, Alexander Graham Bell, and, well, the list goes on of people famous for being the first one to do something extraordinary.
It’s the same in aviation. The Wright Brothers. Charles Lindbergh. Jena Yeager and Dick Rutan, Steve Fossett. All famous first achievers.
But there’s a whole other segment of accomplishments: the last, or mostly likely, the last time something has been done. A dozen things that will (in most cases) never be done again. For many of them, that is a very good thing. For others, it’s bittersweet. And for all of them, the accomplishment, while in some ways more poignant that the initial accomplishment, have largely faded into the annals of history.