alt Hacker NewsThe early jet age was pretty nuts. Check the Wikipedia page for a random fighter from the era and you'll see figures like, 1,300 built, 50 lost in combat, 1,100 lost in accidents. And that's operational aircraft. Test pilots were in even more danger.
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jaggederest • yesterday at 3:55 PM
You should go back even a little further, the USPS air mail service lost 31 of the first 40 pilots.
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ErroneousBosh • yesterday at 7:09 PM
Have you ever listened to Robert Calvert's "Captain Lockheed and the Starfighters"?
Some were pretty bad, but none were nearly that bad. The B-58 Hustler lost 22% of its airframes, the F7U Cutlass 25%, the F-104 Starfighter in German service lost 33%. And those were outliers.