2 ms·
>I suspect that it's more a generational thing than an occupational one. I've met a couple of test pilots from the '90's and '00's and they were the some of the
by throwaway0a5e 6y ago
>I suspect that it's more a generational thing than an occupational one. I've met a couple of test pilots from the '90's and '00's and they were the some of the most by-the-book people I've ever met, they were meticulous and followed their steps precisely, even for quotidian things like making breakfast or pitching a tent.
The people who were test pilots in the 90s were people who succeeded under a system of massive "by the book"-ness.
The cowboys of the 60s don't wind up being successful test pilots in that kind of system.
The organizations changed so the people who succeed in them changed.
- mandevil 6y agoAnd test pilots regularly died in the old system, and come home to their children in the current one, so I prefer the current one. The point is that it isn't "they were test pilots, so crazy" it is "in the 1950's and 1960's a lot more death was accepted and because of that, the standards were lower."
- ryandrake 6y agoThere are old pilots and there are bold pilots, but there are no old, bold pilots. Except until recently, Yeager, who passed late last year, RIP.
- eecc 6y agoIn the 60s you needed some crazy cowboy to try and fly a brick strapped to a gas tank. Today you simulate what happens on a Dell laptop and that’s that.
- mattr47 6y agoThat would be more to computer simulation before the aircraft ever takes it first flight. Test pilots from the in the 50s and 60s did not have that option.