A380-800 - Singapore Airlines

In the opinion of competent experts it is idle to look for a commercial future for the flying machine. There is, and always will be, a limit to it's carrying capacity which will prohibit it's employment for passenger or freight purposes in a wholesale or general way. There are some, of course who will argue that because a machine will carry two people another may be constructed that will carry a dozen, but those who make this contention do not understand the theory of weight sustentation in the air.

-W.J. Jackman and Thomas Russell,

Flying Machines: Construction and Operation, 1912

I wonder what these two authors would make of the idea of a machine carrying three people across space and placing them in orbit around the moon, and another machine that would take two of those men to it's surface. Living in 2012 gives us a certain perspective, I wonder what perspective another Century, would give those fortunate enough to see it .