Wings of Wood, Wings of Metal

An examination of how the process of technological change and progress is not always logical. The author shows how technologies can be shaped by culture and ideology, focusing on the shift from wood to metal in the construction of aircraft, with little evidence for metal's superiority.

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It is an article of faith that technological change moves steadily and logically, with new technologies taking over when old ones are shown to be inferior. We believe that technological change, despite adjustment pains, always represents progress. Eric Schatzberg shows here that this process is not always so logical; even successful technologies can be shaped in strange ways by culture and ideology. He demonstrates this by revealing the cultural biases behind the shift from wood to metal in American aircraft between the World Wars. Schatzberg shows that American aeronautical engineers and airplane designers were swayed by the symbolism of airplane materials that linked metal with technological progress and wood with preindustrial craft traditions. This symbolism encouraged the aeronautical community to focus research and development on metal airplanes at the expense of promising projects involving wood--despite the fact that other countries continued to produce highly successful aircraft with wood through the end of World War II. According to Schatzberg, technical personnel in the American military played the key role in this process.
They had little evidence for metal's superiority, but used their dominant influence to press the case that metal was the wave of the future and that airplanes would inevitably follow ships and abandon wood. Generously illustrated, tightly argued, and meticulously researched, Wings of Wood, Wings of Metal shows clearly that culture and ideology help determine the most basic characteristics of modern industrial technologies. The book also underlines the historically powerful influence of the military on twentieth-century technology.