Aviation: progress driven by safety
We may have tried to fly in the sky from the ancient times and finally managed to get there in 19th century, but the history of mass civil aviation started after the World War II. Challenges of war time sped up the introduction of the reliable jet engine, metal plane body and many other important features.
When the war was over, many pilots and aircraft were available for commercial use. The era of civil and cargo aviation begun. And ever since the progress in the aviation industry was no longer driven by military demand, but rather by safety concerns.
The growing scale of air travel quickly revealed that aviation still had a long way to go before it became the safest way of travel as we know it today. For a long time it took an air disaster to find and correct a problem that just was not acknowledged before. This is why they say that safety rules are written with blood.
Here are some important changes that were introduced this way.
Window shape
The de Havilland DH 106 Comet was the world’s first commercial jetliner. Three crashes one after another put the very idea of mass air travel on question when airplanes literally came apart mid-air.
Investigation revealed dangerous stress at the corners of the square avionics windows. As a result, the Comet was extensively redesigned with oval windows and that became a new standard for all aircraft after them.
Air Traffic ControlThe first major mid-air collision of two planes in the history of civil aviation has occurred in 1956. The airspace over the canyon at that time was not under any type of radar contact as many other areas in the world were the same ‘blind spots’. The standard at that time required that the crew would regularly update on their position when in range. Two aircraft approached the Grand Canyon at the same altitude and nearly the same speed and their real position was unknown on the ground. It is believed the planes passed the same cloud on opposite sides and the flight paths of the two aircraft intersected over the canyon.
This accident really brought the primitive nature of air traffic control (ATC) to light. As a result the Federal Aviation Act of 1958 was passed, creating the Federal Aviation Agency. The FAA was given total authority over American airspace, including military activity, and as procedures and ATC facilities were modernized, mid-air collisions gradually became less frequent.
CRMUnited Airlines Flight 173 was a scheduled flight from in New York to Portland, Oregon. Late 1978 the aircraft flying this route ran out of fuel and crashed in a suburban Portland neighborhood.
On approach to Portland International Airport the attention of the crew was captured with vibration of unknown origin and unclear indication of the landing gear system. The crew went in a holding pattern to figure out the problem and spent an hour in air trying to do so. During this time, none of the three cockpit flight crew monitored the fuel levels. As a result, the aircraft ran out of fuel, lost both engines to flameout and crashed.
The investigation stated that the problem was about the crew resource management. This incident triggered major changes in airline crewmembers training procedure. Now pilots are trained to delegate responsibilities, react quickly in emergency situations and make correct decisions. It is credited with launching the Crew Resource Management revolution in airline training.
Years and years of aviation incidents being investigated and solved created this very safe and comfortable air travel of today. Modern aircraft are technically perfect machines that have a double for every important function.
Human factors, including pilot error, are currently the factor very often found in aviation accidents. Pilot’s training, professionalism and experience become the vital information when it comes to the safety of travel.
Aeron focuses on bringing just that into aviation. Using the most up-to-date blockchain technology it will provide a transparent and immutable database to record important information such as pilot’s flight hours, aircraft logs etc. This will become a new standard, making flying even safer.
