Originally Posted by
FlyerInOKC
You have to admit it took some major guts to climb into one of those cloth and wood crates with a wicker seat and no parachute! Braver men than I!
Been thinking about what you say here and I agree .........BUT! .... back then the plane was some high tech. stuff and the mentality of being in a machine that could manuver at such high speed, I think negated some of the fear, with the knowledge we have of the situation today it would appear the pilots of that time had to be especially brave/stupid.
But consider todays fighter pilot knowing the enemy has missiles capable of three or four times his speed that can guide itself for a long time from quite large distances up his planes tailpipe and/or explode in very close proximity makes it seem like the bravery/stupidity level isn't much different. Parachute or no.
Just a thought!