Anyone exceeding the boundary of conventionalism or consider risks is said to be “ pushing the gasbag . ” The phrasal idiom is so widely circulated that we do n’t exactly question it , though it superficially does n’t seem to make a lot of good sense . Why would ambition be related to run an envelope around ? Why do we stir stationery ?
Actually , we do n’t . In this context , envelopedoesn’t mean postal or paper correspondence . It ’s instead referring to the aeronautical term of the limitation of a physical quad or engineering .
Accordingto Merriam - Webster , both the nounenvelopeand the verbenvelopcome from the Anglo - Gallic wordenvoluper , withvolupermeaning “ to wrap . ” In the context of air locomotion , the envelope refer to the operating doorway of aircraft . To push a plane past its fastness limits , or past the terminus ad quem of ALT , would be to transcend — or bear on — its envelope .
The musical phrase apparentlyenteredthe mainstream lexicon thanks to Tom Wolfe . The author ’s 1979 bookThe Right Stuff , which detail the early days of American space exploration , reference pilotChuck Yeagergoing through “ the supersonic envelope . ” pilot , Wolfe wrote , were often talking about “ pushing the outside of the gasbag . ” He believed the metaphor may have arise with test pilots at thePatuxentRiver Naval Air Station in Maryland in the 1940s , ground on the “ gasbag ” of air travel or gas container in balloons and airships .
Wolfe add up the metaphor was verbalise of in term of flight examination :
In most good example , theenvelopeis an inclosure to be offend and is often associated with innovation . Or , if pushing the envelope is dangerous , with jeopardy . It ’s all about pushing boundaries , and has nothing to do with rest stationary .
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