The celebrations during this centennial year of man’s first flight at Kitty Hawk, N.C., has put the spotlight on many air-space feats. It all began with that 12-second flight by the Wright Brothers, where the Wright Flyer never got more than 12 feet off the ground and traveled only about 120 feet overland.

Part of the “miracle of flight” in 1903 is that efforts to recreate and fly models of that specific pioneering Wright craft have failed. As long as the original design and construction are adhered to, no luck.

Think of all the other “miracles” that have occurred in connection with humanity’s efforts to conquer the sky. There were World War I airplane adventures, cross-country treks like those by Kansas’ Amelia Earhart, Charles Lindbergh’s historical Atlantic Ocean flight in 1927, the many space ventures and the landings on the moon. All of these and more events are highly notable.

But those deeply embedded in the process of flight contend that there is an ongoing “miracle” of aviation that too often is overlooked. It is the takeoff and landing of airplanes on the postage stamp-like surfaces of aircraft carriers.

Risky carrier landings long have been described as controlled crashes. There have, unfortunately, been many fatal uncontrolled pile-ins. Consider how difficult it was to accomplish carrier landings in the early days, then later as the planes got bigger and more powerful and reached the jet age. The skill, daring and courage of men and women who can accomplish deck landings and takeoffs successfully is impossible to capsulize.

Just how fantastic these feats are was reiterated during the recent dedication ceremonies of the Dole Institute of Politics in Lawrence. Airplanes of note were brought to the city for enjoyment and perusal by the public. A number of them had been in use during World War II, when Bob Dole served and was badly wounded.

One of the aircraft sitting at the municipal airport here was a Grumman torpedo bomber, during its heyday the biggest single-engine plane on earth. This piece of machinery, which had a crew of three, was gigantic. It would tax the runways of many a land airport, let alone the restricted decks of Navy carriers.

And yet this monstrous Grumman was flown off and onto carrier decks time after time in the 1940s as America battled to subdue the Germans and Japanese. Even men who flew the TBF successfully and lived to tell it shake their heads nowadays wondering how they ever did it as safely as they did.

This centennial year of powered flight gives us much to celebrate and appreciate and helps us reflect on so many monumental achievements. But one can make a case that carrier takeoffs and landings remain in the “miracle” category.