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Why do planes disappear or fall out of the sky? Brace for Impact traces the evolution of accident investigation and explains why flying is the safest form of travel.
The history of air accidents is a harrowing one. Yet today flying is the safest mode of transportation, thanks in no small part to the work of crash detectives. Whenever a plane falls from the sky, the investigators pick through the wreckage for the clues they need to decipher what happened to that flight. Before the invention of the ‘black box’ and the evolution of forensic accident investigation, the causes often remained a mystery.
Since the Wright brothers first took flight, aircraft design, pilot training, aircraft maintenance, and air traffic control have all evolved to current standards of safety. Because of lessons learned from tragedies such as what befell the Comets in the 1950s, the Douglas DC-10s in the 1970s, and ill-fated Air India, TWA, and Swissair flights, flight safety continues to improve. In many ways, the history of aviation is the history of air crash investigation.
The history of air accidents is a harrowing one. Yet today flying is the safest mode of transportation, thanks in no small part to the work of crash detectives. Whenever a plane falls from the sky, the investigators pick through the wreckage for the clues they need to decipher what happened to that flight. Before the invention of the ‘black box’ and the evolution of forensic accident investigation, the causes often remained a mystery.
Since the Wright brothers first took flight, aircraft design, pilot training, aircraft maintenance, and air traffic control have all evolved to current standards of safety. Because of lessons learned from tragedies such as what befell the Comets in the 1950s, the Douglas DC-10s in the 1970s, and ill-fated Air India, TWA, and Swissair flights, flight safety continues to improve. In many ways, the history of aviation is the history of air crash investigation.
Price: $29.00
Pages: 272
Publisher: Dundurn Press
Imprint: Dundurn Press
Publication Date:
12 July 2016
Trim Size: 10.00 X 7.00 in
ISBN: 9781459732520
Format: Paperback
BISACs:
TRANSPORTATION / Aviation / General, Aircraft: general interest, REFERENCE / Survival & Emergency Preparedness, TRANSPORTATION / Aviation / Commercial, Outdoor survival skills, Consumer advice
Well-researched and presents a definitive history of Canadian aviation.
What a cool book.
What a cool book.
Peter Pigott is Canada’s foremost aviation author. Among his accomplishments are the histories of Air Canada, Trans-Canada Airlines, and Canadian Airlines. He is the author of From Far and Wide, Sailing Seven Seas, Canada in Sudan, and many more books. He lives in Ottawa.
- Introduction
- 1 Flying Too Close to the Sun
- 2 Knights of the Air and the Great War
- 3 Barnstormers, Flaming Coffins, and Death Mockers
- 4 Lindbergh, Leo the Lion, and Air Mail Aces
- 5 Celebrity Deaths and the Rise of Commercial Passenger Flight
- 6 Lancasters, LORAN, and the Second World War
- 7 Make Way for Tomorrow: The Comet Crashes
- 8 A False Start for the Black Box
- 9 Kicking Tin and Coping with Disaster
- 10 No Longer Deaf and Mute: FDRs and CVRs Become Law
- 11 Douglas Death Cruisers and Mourning Becomes Electra
- 12 Terror in Tenerife, Pilot Error, and Air Traffic Chaos
- 13 Deregulation and Fighting Fire with Decrees
- 14 Aviation’s Annus Horribilis
- 15 Regional Air Tragedy: The Kegworth and Dryden Perfect Storms
- 16 Watchdogs of Air Travel and Accidents
- 17 Nationair and ValuJet: Folly upon Folly
- 18 Swissair One-Eleven Heavy
- 19 Complex Systems Failing in Complex Ways
- Notes
- Acknowledgements
- Index