Apollo 14 50th anniversary images find Alan Shepard's ball and how far he hit it

Re:Apollo 14 50th anniversary images find Alan Shepard's bal... by throwaway0a5e on Thursday February 04, 2021 @09:49PM (#26032502)

>I suspect that it's more a generational thing than an occupational one. I've met a couple of test pilots from the '90's and '00's and they were the some of the most by-the-book people I've ever met, they were meticulous and followed their steps precisely, even for quotidian things like making breakfast or pitching a tent.

The people who were test pilots in the 90s were people who succeeded under a system of massive "by the book"-ness.

The cowboys of the 60s don't wind up being successful test pilots in that kind of system.

The organizations changed so the people who succeed in them changed.

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Re:Apollo 14 50th anniversary images find Alan Shepard's bal... by mandevil on Thursday February 04, 2021 @09:53PM (#26032519)

And test pilots regularly died in the old system, and come home to their children in the current one, so I prefer the current one.

The point is that it isn't "they were test pilots, so crazy" it is "in the 1950's and 1960's a lot more death was accepted and because of that, the standards were lower."

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Re:Apollo 14 50th anniversary images find Alan Shepard's bal... by eecc on Friday February 05, 2021 @03:04AM (#26034124)

In the 60s you needed some crazy cowboy to try and fly a brick strapped to a gas tank. Today you simulate what happens on a Dell laptop and that’s that.

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Re:Apollo 14 50th anniversary images find Alan Shepard's bal... by ryandrake on Thursday February 04, 2021 @11:15PM (#26033033)

There are old pilots and there are bold pilots, but there are no old, bold pilots. Except until recently, Yeager, who passed late last year, RIP.

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Re:Apollo 14 50th anniversary images find Alan Shepard's bal... by mattr47 on Friday February 05, 2021 @09:28PM (#26043584)

That would be more to computer simulation before the aircraft ever takes it first flight. Test pilots from the in the 50s and 60s did not have that option.

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