Read from the Prologue of Never Land: Adventures, Wonder, and One World Record in a Very Small Plane by W. Scott Olsen:

"Here is what I believe.

We have a desire for infinity.

Nature, the axiom goes, abhors a vacuum. Nature will fill any vacuum, by any means, as quickly as possible. Nature rushes to fill the empty space, compelled to find a way, any way at all, to leap toward distance. This is why I believe there is nothing in the long line of human inventions as deeply rooted in our souls as the airship. It doesn’t matter if the airship is a balloon, a kite, a glider, a zeppelin, a little Cessna 152, or the x-15. No building, no monument, no bridge, no wheel or aqueduct, no lightbulb or computer system comes even close to the spirit, the hope, the necessity, and the reach of flying. Up has always been a better direction than down. Heaven is always someplace above where we are now. To look up into a clear or cloud-filled sky and to ask “How do I get there?” is one of our ancient questions.

Curiosity, and the reaching that comes with it, has a million expressions. Climbing a mountain is the expression of wondering what limits there are to rock. The sailing ship is the way we discover how far the ocean goes. The submarine is the way we discover how deep. And it is certainly possible that these are all really the same thing, all ways of our reaching out to fill the void. Perhaps the submarine is in fact the mirror reflection of the airship, everything the same except it’s all backward. Down instead of up. Fully enclosed against increasing pressure instead of open to thinning air. And perhaps the sailing ship is very much like the airship, curving the wind to catch it in its upright wings and move it forward. All three machines, and the people who steer them, navigating a fluid alive with currents and storms as well as soul-exploding beauty.

But, in truth, I think not. The sailing ship ends on the other side of the ocean. The submarine ends at the ocean floor. Even the climber must turn around when the summit has been gained. At the moment of departure, there is a finite goal, a limit, a boundary that is imposed by geography and inviolate.

Only the airship can claim a step toward infinity. Only the airship pilot can look up and find a universe larger than his ability to dream it."