Aeronautics

Aeronautics is the study of traveling through air.

The Bible understands a fundamental principle associated with the study of flight. Namely, air has mass. As a result, it can generate a force the aeronautical community refers to as “Lift”.

Air Mass and Generating Lift

“For He looks to the ends of the earth, and sees under the whole heavens, to establish a weight (pressure) for the wind and apportion the waters by measure.”

Job 28: 24 – 25

In 1643, an Italian scientist by the name of Evangelista Torricelli invented the barometer. This is a device that enables atmospheric pressure to be measured. Atmospheric pressure is the result of the weight of the atmosphere (air) pushing down on itself and on the surface below it. For example, at sea level atmospheric pressure is about 14.7 pounds per square inch.

Job writes the words of Job 28: 24 – 25 more than 3,600 years before Torricelli’s invention. Job recognizes that wind (moving air) has weight. The Bible is accurate in its understanding of air as weighing something. If air has weight, it has mass. It is only because air has mass that a force called “Lift” can be generated. This is what enables us (and for that matter, birds) to fly.

The Bible is accurate in its understanding of the forces behind the field of aeronautics.

Relevant Pioneer Quote

Werner von Braun (1912–1977) was one of the most important rocket developers and champions of space exploration of the 20th Century. He developed and oversaw the V2 rocket program for Germany during World War II. The science that came out of this program would serve as the basis for both the Soviet and US Space programs. In 1945, von Braun negotiated the surrender of 500 of his top rocket scientists, along with plans and test vehicles, to the United States.

From 1945 thru 1960, he worked with the U.S. Army in the development of ballistic missiles. In 1950 von Braun’s team built the Army’s Jupiter ballistic missile program. In 1960, his team transferred to the newly established NASA program and began to build super booster rockets under the Saturn program. Accordingly, von Braun became the first director of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and the chief architect of the Saturn V launch vehicle. The Saturn rockets would ultimately propel American to the Moon.

“For me the idea of a creation is inconceivable without God. One cannot be exposed to the law and order of the universe without concluding that there must be a divine intent behind it all.”

Werner von Braun, An Essay on Science and the Christian Faith (1976)

Werner von Braun believed in the existence of God and saw the universe around us as tremendous evidence for the Creator.

The Bible is accurate in its understanding of aeronautics.