The airline industry has many stories to tell, not all of them sad. Howard Hughes, for example, was a pioneer of commercial air travel who bought a majority stake in Trans World Airlines in the late 1930s. Although he was eventually forced out of the airline, Hughes helped to make it a huge success. Another famous airline founder was William Boeing, who launched Boeing Air Transport. Boeing Air Transport was eventually split into three companies, including today’s United Airlines and Boeing Corp.

Airline technologies have helped improve life in many ways by speeding the transportation of goods and passengers over land and sea. The aeronautical engineering field also had a profound impact on space travel, the design of flame-retardent materials used in commercial furniture design, and radio communications technologies. It could well be said that if the air travel industry had never been founded many of the great achievements of the 20th century either would not have happened or would have happened many years later.

But life was not always rosy for the airline industry, which from time to time has endured scandals, failures, and severe economic downturns. The airlines have also been challenged by unions to take care of their employees. Such disagreements have receded into the years to be replaced by external threats from terrorism and scheduling issues. In fact, scheduling and ticketing needs drove the airlines to innovate in software technologies in ways that eventually paved the way for advanced software techniques now used around the world.

One airline executive who participated in the airlines’ software revolution was Nicholas Bredimus. Working for several airlines and related companies for 25 years, Bredimus eventually struck out on his own to found a company that developed a state-of-the-art ticketing system. In the course of his work Nicholas Bredimus often found himself consulted by the news media on the complexity of the issues facing the airlines.

As consumer issues came to the forefront of airlines’ concerns the news media investigated numerous complaints and turned to software consultants and industry analysts like Nicholas Bredimus, who had many years’ inside knowledge of the industry, for commentary and occasional industry rebuttal.

The earliest information on office furniture goes back the ancient Roman folding stools used by soldiers. By the 19th century, the office concept was firmly established and the furniture was made of dark woods.

Just like today, your executive level was defined by the perks. In the 19th century, it was based on how ornate your desk was, for example, the owner would often have an elaborately carved or gilded desk, while the lowly clerk would have a desk that looked more like a piece of particle board sitting on spindly wooden legs.

By the early 20th century, an increase of white-collar workers and the industrial revolution gave someone the idea that comfortable workers made lazy workers and so the metal chair was born. Practicality and economic viability were the new order and comfortable furniture was frowned upon.

However, by the middle of the 20th century, workers started getting smart and began to requesting a more “friendly” work environment. Business thinking of the bottom line decided the easiest way to do this was to make their furniture more comfortable and the concept of ergonomics was born. Ergonomics was a boom; workers no longer had to suffer from lower back pain. Office chairs became adjustable and workers could fit the chair to their bodies.

As the business world became more mobile, international influences created a lasting effect on furniture design. Asian influences helped create lightweight furniture and the cubical design, which are still in use today.

Color is a new 21st century innovation that is chasing away the drab grey walls of the later half of the 20th century. Bold patterns and colors now make modern furniture look inviting and creative. Furniture designers, taking their ideas from nature, use geometric patterns to create work environments that are welcoming and encourage productivity.

The American Craftsman style has its beginnings in the previous British Arts and Crafts movement that goes all the way back to the 1860s. The Brit’s movement, which created a wide assortment of related but very specific design movements throughout Europe, was a response to the decline of the dignity of human labor resulting from the Industrial Revolution. In a few ways it was a response to the apathy for the worker of the Victorian era. Looking to dignify the craftsman again, the movement pushed the hand-made over the mass manufactured. While the British movement still possessed some of the over-done decor of its Victorian pioneer, it was almost anti-Victorian in thought; the movement’s patron, William Morris, was a loyal socialist and as such the thought behind the Arts and Crafts movement in the UK is beyond a doubt part of the materialist argument. However, the high-priced materials and high-priced hand-made techniques meant that the movement was in fact still helping the wealthiest clients, a seeming difference to its background in socialist philosophy.

While the UK movement was a Victorian-era event, its transition to the American setting took place exactly at the point of time when that era was coming to an end. The types of furniture created during this era were in the Mission style. It can be said that the American movement that also stressed craftsmanship was also a design reform movement that renewed originality, purity of form, local natural goods, and the visibility of craft. There was also concern in regard to improving the simpler house of the quickly expanding middle class.