Masters of the Air just wrapped on Apple+. I highly recommend this show. There’s great acting and action and visuals.
Masters of the Air is a 9-episode TV series about the 100th Bomb Group flying B-17 heavy bombers during World War II.
What’s the first thing the B-17 pilot and co-pilot did after taking their seats? Well, after some playful banter…it was going over a flight checklist.
Why a checklist? Safety! Boeing was competing to win a contract with the U.S. military to supply heavy bombers. Their prototype B-17 crashed and caused the death of two of the crew.
This crash almost ended Boeing as a company! The U.S. Army saw the potential of the B-17 and found a way to fund the program further.
The survivors sadly found the easily preventable cause of the crash. The control surface gust lock had not been released. This gave birth to the pre-flight checklist which included this simple yet critical action before takeoff.
Now all pilots are required to go through pre-flight checklists. This fact always makes me feel better about hopping on a plane.