Staring out the window at the massive jet engines strapped to the wing of your commercial airliner means you are casually observing a piece of mechanical engineering that costs upwards of thirty million dollars.

A closer look

Staring out the window at the massive jet engines strapped to the wing of your commercial airliner means you are casually observing a piece of mechanical engineering that costs upwards of thirty million dollars. These terrifyingly powerful turbines require surgical precision to maintain and are heavily insured against bird strikes, random debris, and the sheer destructive force of their own internal combustion. It is oddly humbling to realize that the transportation company you flew with would never spend an extra fifty cents to give you a full can of soda, yet they casually strapped the GDP of a small island nation to the side of the aircraft. Next time you feel like complaining about the exorbitant cost of your non-refundable ticket, remember that you are technically renting a hyper-expensive, fire-breathing metal monster designed to cheat gravity itself. Just pray that the drastically underpaid mechanic who inspected that multi-million dollar fan blade did not skip their morning coffee!