Be it known that I have seen the place where a bored young Isaac Newton carved his name into the wood during class, long before he went on to develop those ideas that rendered a similar mental state to many thousands, if not millions of children, as well as enlightenment of an entire global scientific community. And it was that and his apple that led into today's topic.

Our story begins

Back in 1934 when two young pilots named Dick Kerr and Charley Rocheville escorted a Fairchild 71 single engine by sea from New York to Alexandria, Egypt, and then daringly "hopped" it to Saudi Arabia under its own power by way of Cairo, Gaza, Baghdad, Basrah and Jubail where the first exploration parties were waiting desperately for an "aerial eye". Their flight was really the start of Aramco's airline.

The early days of flying in Arabia have given birth, of course, to numerous legends. One tells of the time when a hive of bees broke loose from their crate on a flight to the al-Kharj experimental farm. Then there's the story of the 60 screeching prize hunting falcons which were flown tied to a burlap-covered plank for a local amir. There was also the old Bedouin who tried to cook his dinner on an open fire in the cabin.

From which you might gather that it is a weekend and we are back talking about technical stuff. This is a short technical review of some aspects of the oil business, and today I will explain a little bit about how we find areas that will justify a seismic survey, and then a drilling investigation. These are the gravimetric and aerial magnetic surveys that are the initial large areal reviews of what the ground looks like, underneath the surface.