The Wing That Flapped

FLYING over the Grand Canyon from Los Angeles our plane hit some nervous air. I put down my paper and looked out to see how far I would have to fall to hit the Colorado River. Then I looked at the wing to see if it was holding up as well as I was. It was flapping like a seal before breakfast. In that wing-tip there was an up-and-down waggle of at least a yard. I did not feel quite as bold as a lion. Of course, we got to La Guardia Field all right and were on time. Yesterday I ran into our Pilot. I just happened to mention that wobble in our wing. "Oh sure," he said. "That wobble is built in on purpose. Matter of fact, what you saw was just a little of what you might call flicker. Sometimes she really flaps, as much as six feet or more. All built in. On the drawing board, and into the steel, and past all the tests. Have to have elasticity, you see? If the wing was rigid, it would snap. That would not be so good. "Has to have some 'give' to it," I said, "I get it." "Yes," he said, "some give, and also some take." Funny thing: on the drawing boards they have a fancy engineering name for it. They call it 'Tolerance.' That just means the amount you have to give or take before you snap. If you're rigid, you see, something unexpected comes along and hits you hard, maybe across the grain, and you snap. That is not good any place. So what they call 'Tolerance' in engineering turns out to be only give and take. But it can be built in into the cold end of a steel wing, or into a human heart. And maybe, if our tolerance is planned and if we know that the only real danger of a rigid position is sudden disaster, we'd all give more, take more, and confirm the laws of the Great Engineer. Maybe we'd reach our next airport a little ruffled by nervous air, but better for it.