Testing on the Fly: World War II Field Expedients That Kept Aircraft in Combat

摘要

Normally, solving weapon system problems requires a deliberative process of arriving at engineered solutions, and of testing and evaluating them under controlled conditions. But this process became a casualty of war when damaged aircraft needed improvised fixing in flight. During the heat of World War II air battles, with no time to ponder and test a solution, aircrews relied on their own ingenuity to bring aircraft - in this case, B-17s and B-24s - back to base on a wing and a postulation.