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They were all test pilots, they knew what the chances were.
by ProAm 10y ago
They were all test pilots, they knew what the chances were.
- astrodust 10y agoI'm sure it was presumed to be "not good" as a baseline, and coming back in one piece was a bonus.
- masklinn 10y agoPretty much. Which is the daily life of a test pilot (especially at the time, some planes were absolute death traps). They knew the engineers were trying to make things as safe as possible, but they were still sitting atop giant missiles full of stuff going kabloey if you looked at it wrong: Glenn's first orbit was launched by an Atlas LV-3B, a modified and saferized derivation of the Atlas D ICBM powered by RP1/LOX. Well to be fair RP1/LOX is fairly tame when compared with H2/LOX or Hydrazine derivatives.
- astrodust 10y agoIt's like Chuck Yeager says, any landing where you survive is a great landing, and any landing where the plane can fly again is exceptional. He flew a firecracker over the speed of sound. That thing could have easily exploded when it hit that velocity due to unpredicted aero loading. Test pilots are made of sterner stuff than just about everyone else on the planet, but they're not ignorant of the risks.