We also meet the men, from pilots like Stephen Till and John I. Williams to adventurers, passengers, and photographers like Mick Moignard (a favorite ZATZ editor), Dave Spragg, Jon Canfield, Dennis Deery, and James Aronovsky.

Flight, like so many revolutionary things filtered through the lens of time, has become quite pedestrian. And that's how it should be. But the achievement of flight was anything but pedestrian. The next time you're not sure whether you're up for the challenge, remember Wilbur and Orville (and Mardell, Marilyn, Kathy, Katherine, Mick, Dave, Jon, Dennis, and James).

Remember that before there were computers and even much of the modern machine shops, these gentlemen managed to not only build their own engine in six weeks, but their own flying machine (and learned to fly it).

We humans can be pretty amazing sometimes. Let's use this anniversary as motivation to continue to amaze, enthrall, and innovate, and to push the boundaries of the human condition.

About this series This week, we're running fifteen articles celebrating the anniversary of flight across all our magazines. Be sure to read them all; they are each quite exceptional: Read The twelve seconds that changed history by Mardell Haskins. Read An out of this world experience with Burning Blue by Dave Spragg. Read The Centennial by Marilyn Dash. Read Thanks, Wilbur and Orville by James Aronovsky. Read The Oshkosh Fly-In by Dennis Deery. Read The spirit is born by Kathy Walker. Read 99 years and 350+ days by Matthew Justice. Read First flights by John I. Williams, Jr. Read The British Chairwoman's Challenge by Mardell Haskins. Read The Wonder Machine by Stephen Till. Read Faster than the sun by Mick Moignard. Read Tiger cruise by Jon Canfield. Read The age of romance by Mardell Haskins. Read Aviation firsts by Mardell Haskins. Read The World War II years and beyond by Mardell Haskins. And read my editorial Celebrating flight across the years and across the magazines. Next week, we resume our regular coverage.

Diane Poremsky is the president of CDOLive LLC and a Microsoft Outlook MVP. She's author of Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours (Sam's, 2003) and coauthor of OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide). For questions or suggestions for future columns, write her at outlook@cdolive.com.