When he was in his late 50’a, my father told me that he never expected to live that long. He had learned to fly airplanes before World War II, a time when flying was considered to be inherently dangerous. Engines were much less reliable in this days and pilots trained for mid-air engine failures and off-airport landings. There were no such things as authorized repair stations and field repairs were often made with materials that were substandard. We might joke these days about something being held together with bailing wire, but early pilots ,made repairs with what was at hand. And the structural limits of the airplanes were largely unknown. Testing to failure didn’t occur on a regular basis, except during actual flight. They took an airplane up and if it could enter and recover from a spin it was deemed flyable.

After Pearl Harbor he joined the pilot’s service corps and soon was commissioned in the Army Air Corps. He spent the war years as an instructor pilot, teaching others to fly multiple-engine airplanes. Being a part of the Army gave him access to larger and more powerful airplanes and the equipment was generally better than what he had been flying in civilian life, but it was wartime and no money or time was wasted in luxury and the planes were built as quickly as possible. Mechanical problems were common and accidents were fairly regular at any air base. As the war wound down he began flying airplanes that had returned from the Pacific arena to a boneyard in Arizona. These war-weary planes all had some problems and system failures were common. It was working as a ferry pilot that he experienced an engine failure while flying a Bell P-39 and was forced to bail out of the out-of-control airplane. He survived the adventure with an injury that earned him a purple heart and a membership in the caterpillar club.

At the time, he had thoughts of becoming a test pilot. He loved airplanes and flying and the idea of testing the limits of flight and flying the newest and fastest airplanes was appealing. That quick exit from the P-39 and the way the tail hit him as he fell away from the plane, however, pretty much ended his chance of flying as a test pilot. Although the injury never caused serious disability for him, the fact that it was on his record removed him from the ranks of the most elite pilots.

As a civilian he entered the ranks of agricultural pilots - a profession with an accident rate that is way above average. These days there are safety systems in airplanes that make the type of low-level accidents common in agricultural applications survivable, but when he began, the tube and fabric airplanes they flew, weren’t much at protecting the pilots. The somewhat morbid joke of the time was that pilots wear helmets because they keep their heads round when they break their necks in an accident.

I experienced my father as a huge stickler for safety. He personally inspected every airplane before every flight. He grounded planes for any problem and insisted that it be repaired before flight. He practiced maneuvers over and over again and he made sure that the latest safety equipment was installed on his planes. He had a sign in his airport office that said something like this: “Don’t you dare scratch my airplane. So far no one has been hurt when the airplane wasn’t damaged.”

I grew up with a father flying airplanes and who flew countless hours with him before I finally was old enough to start my own log book and earn my own license to fly. I accepted airplanes as a part of normal every-day life. I leaned to listen for the sounds of the engines of airplanes and could identify which one my dad was flying without even looking at the sky. So it was rather strange when I was a young adult to hear my father speak of how he really expected, when he was the age I was then, that he would die in an aircraft accident. He told me how when he started Sky Fight, Inc., he was unable to obtain life insurance because of the risks of his occupation. Finally he was able to get a policy from Lloyds of London that came at a very steep premium, but it gave him the assurance he needed to continue flying after he had a family.

My father taught me to read and study accident reports as a way of learning from tragedy and increasing the safety of my own aviation adventures. Every accident report I read gave me a sense of sadness. Many accidents could have been prevented through proper pilot training, increased maintenance, and other simple steps.

So I have a heavy heart today as I read the stories of the SpaceShip Two accident yesterday. I have been following the program from its beginning. I have been a fan of designer Burt Rutan for decades. When his brother Dick and Jeana Yeager flew the Rutan Voyager around the world, I had invested $25 in a donation to the program before it was clear that the airplane would be built. The design was so intriguing to me that I read everything I could about it and was delighted to be able to see the plane in the National Air and Space Museum after the trip was completed. I have been excited and impressed by the huge program to promote space tourism even though I would never spend what they will charge for a ride on the plane. It seemed that the design of carrying the rocket ship to 50,000 feet and then releasing it for a relatively short rocket burn was a much safer way of launching than the huge rockets required to get space vehicles launched from the ground. And as each step of the program progressed, we were impressed by its successes and safety.

And now, in the desert, investigators need to be so careful going over the wreckage as they try to discover what happened and what can be done to prevent future tragedy. A family grieves the death of a pilot and worries about the injuries to the second pilot. The price in dollars suddenly seems small in comparison with the cost in human life.

Which brings to mind another sign my father had: Aviation in itself is not inherently dangerous. But to an even greater degree than the sea, it is terribly unforgiving of any carelessness, incapacity or neglect." — Captain A. G. Lamplugh

Space flight will one day be as safe as flying on an airliner. But to get to that point, risks will be taken and other accidents will occur. May all involved be doubly careful to avoid any carelessness, incapacity or neglect.

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