![]() ![]() However, testimony by Air Corps copilot Lieutenant Donald L. The tragic crash of Model 299 in 1935 revealed the challenges of flying increasingly sophisticated aircraft-prompting the creation of a pilot’s checklist.Īt first, an inquiry board could find no reason for the accident. The accident would claim the lives of two of the country’s top test pilots: the Army Air Corps’ Hill, who was at the controls, and Leslie Tower of Boeing, who looked on from the cockpit. But when the bomber ascended to 300 feet, it stalled and then crashed in a fiery blast before a stunned crowd of top-ranking military leaders. On October 30, Model 299 took off from Wright Field, the large, shiny airplane roaring impressively down the runway. Later dubbed the “Flying Fortress” by a journalist because of its bristling machine-gun defenses, the long-range bomber that would become the iconic B-17 during World War II featured four powerful engines and some of the most advanced technology seen on an aircraft of that era. All three aircraft showed promise, but the Boeing design-known as Model 299-especially interested military brass. In 1935, the Army Air Corps was evaluating three bomber prototypes submitted by Boeing, Martin, and Douglas. The accident that changed it all occurred at a time when the world was readying for another war. You have to accept the fact that things can go wrong, so you have to take steps to make sure they won’t.” The legacy of Model 299 It’s looking at what could happen and how to prevent it. You wonder why it took a crash to realize that a checklist was a good idea. ![]() “Just about every single thing we do is based on something that has gone wrong in the past. “We always say these lessons are written in blood,” says Marks. He relies on a checklist each and every time he takes to the air with the 442nd Fighter Wing at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. Air Force Reserve, the only pilot with more than 7,000 hours flying the Fairchild Republic A-10C Thunderbolt II. Just ask Lieutenant Colonel John “Karl” Marks of the U.S. Today, the preflight checklist remains a must in the military. Members of the 379th Expeditionary Aircraft Maintenance Squadron perform preflight checks of a KC-135 Stratotanker as it prepares to taxi before takeoff at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, on July 24, 2020. ![]() Apollo astronaut Michael Collins even dubbed them a “fourth crew member.” (Collins would become the director of the National Air and Space Museum in 1971.) The practice reverberated across other businesses and commerce sectors, inspiring a new safety culture based on the concept that standard operating procedures involving step-by-step checks were essential. And the preflight checklist enabled the advancement of aviation technology by ensuring that, with proper protocols in place, pilots could safely fly the increasingly complex aircraft that sprang from the minds of engineers. This major innovation in flight preparation has saved countless lives and averted untold crashes by circumventing mistakes. The Army Air Corps implemented the preflight checklist, a revolutionary new protocol that became the standard for the entire aviation industry. What happened next would change aviation safety forever. The pilot, Major Ployer Peter Hill, had forgotten to release a safety lock. An inquiry discovered no problem with the sophisticated aircraft’s design. That day, the promising prototype for a four-engine, long-range bomber had crashed shortly after takeoff at Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio. Army Air Corps lay smoldering on the ground. On October 30, 1935, the future of the U.S. How an accident gave us the checklist, and safer flying. ![]()
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