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TIL Nazi Germany had a squadron of pilots dedicated to ramming Allied bombers at the end of WWII.

by whatilearned September 16, 2022, 4:48 pm

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TIL about rescue buoys used in the English channel in WWII. Designed to provide shelter for the pilots or crew of aircraft shot down or forced to make an emergency landing over water, they contained food, cigarettes, liquor, flares and even board games to pass the time.

by whatilearned September 7, 2022, 1:35 pm

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TIL of Ken Adam, one of only three World War II Royal Air Force pilots to be born in Germany. After the war, he become a set designer and won two Oscars for Best Art Direction. He was knighted in 2003, and died in 2016.

by whatilearned September 4, 2022, 9:11 pm

8 Points
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TIL that the us military trained pilots over the Great Lakes.

by whatilearned August 31, 2022, 4:08 am

10 Points
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TIL In honor of the 100th anniversary of Bessie Coleman, the first Black woman to earn a pilot’s license, American Airlines operated a flight out of Dallas with an all-Black, all-female crew – from the pilots and flight attendants to cargo team members and aviation maintenance technicians.

by whatilearned August 22, 2022, 8:49 pm

12 Points
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TIL that in 1958, 2 pilots flew a modified Cessna 172 over the desert Southwest for 64 days, 22 hours, and 19 minutes.

by whatilearned August 6, 2022, 10:59 pm

12 Points
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TIL memory foam was invented by NASA as a means to keep test pilots cushioned during flights.

by whatilearned July 31, 2022, 6:52 pm

12 Points
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TIL about Loganair Flight 6780, where after falling at a rate of 9500 per minute and only 7 seconds from crashing into the North Sea, a random computer glitch caused the autopilot to disengage. Allowing the pilots to regain control and save the aircraft.

by whatilearned July 28, 2022, 6:09 pm

12 Points
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TIL the Reno 911! pilot was conceived and shot in 5 days. The team had worked on a series of pilots, one of which, after a year’s worth of development, was terminated the day before shooting. The team asked if they could make another pilot (Reno 911!) with the remaining funds, and executives agreed.

by whatilearned July 1, 2022, 5:11 pm

12 Points
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TIL that the title “Triple Ace in a Day” refers to pilots who shot down 15 enemy aircraft in a single day. There have only been 5 such pilots, all of whom flew for the German Luftwaffe in WWII.

by whatilearned June 26, 2022, 8:22 pm

12 Points
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TIL In 2009, two Northwest pilots had their licenses revoked (for at least one year) after they overflew the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport by 150 miles and had to turn around. Pilots said that they were using their laptops in the cockpit and lost track of time and place.

by whatilearned June 10, 2022, 4:25 pm

12 Points
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TIL During WW2, the US torpedoes had a shocking 70% to 80% failure rate in 1942, pilots knew this and were aware that they were being used as cannon fodder since their torpedoes would rarely hit their target

by whatilearned May 25, 2022, 10:00 am

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