The Problem with Pilots: How Physicians, Engineers, and Airpower Enthusiasts Redefined Flight

An illuminating look at how human vulnerability led to advances in aviation technology. As aircraft flew higher, faster, and farther in the early days of flight, pilots were exposed as vulnerable, inefficient, and dangerous. They asphyxiated or got the bends at high altitudes; they fainted during high-G maneuvers; they spiraled to the ground after encountering clouds or fog. Their capacity to commit fatal errors seemed boundless. The Problem with Pilots tells the story of how, in the years between the world wars, physicians and engineers sought new ways to address these difficulties and bridge the widening gap between human and machine performance. A former Air Force pilot, Timothy P. Schultz delves into archival sources to understand the evolution of the pilot–aircraft relationship. As aviation technology evolved and enthusiasts looked for ways to advance its military uses, pilots ceded hands-on control to sophisticated instrument-based control. By the early 1940s, pilots were sometimes evicted from aircraft in order to expand the potential of airpower—a phenomenon much more common in today's era of high-tech (and often unmanned) aircraft. Connecting historical developments to modern flight, this study provides an original view of how scientists and engineers brought together technological, medical, and human elements to transform the pilot's role. The Problem with Pilots does away with the illusion of pilot supremacy and yields new insights into our ever-changing relationship with intelligent machines.

Table of Contents:
Timeline Abbreviations Preface Acknowledgments 1. Introduction 2. The Pathology of Flight 3. Engineering the Human Machine 4. Flying Blind 5. The Changing Role of the Human Component 6. Flight without Flyers 7. The Modern Pilot, Redefined 8. New Horizons of Flight 9. Conclusion Coda About the Author Notes Index

About the Author :
Timothy P. Schultz is the Naval War College's associate dean for electives and research.

Review :
This book does what any good history book should do — introduce new ideas, new ways of looking at old ideas, and it pushes its field (aviation history) in new directions, opening new doors for further study and generating interesting new questions. Highly recommended. —GoodReads What Schultz has done, comprehensively, yet engagingly, is to tell the stories behind key milestones in a way that brings them to life. He shines a light on the human element, specifically the humanity behind the legends of Air Force history, while simultaneously placing them in the larger historical context visible now with the benefit of hindsight . . . It is an important contribution to the public discourse around the future of flight, the future of military aviation, and the future of the US Air Force. The Problem With Pilots is a rewarding read and will be of wide interest to all USAF leaders of today and tomorrow— aspiring military and civilian pilots, flight surgeons, aeronautical engineers, and aviation historians. —Lt Col Kari Thyne, PhD, USAF, Retired, Air University The Problem with Pilots is a worthy addition to the scholarship on how aviation evolved during the first half of the twentieth century and its influence on the decades that followed. It benefits from thorough archival and published primary source documentation. —Jeremy R. Kinney, Aeronautics Department, Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Isis Schultz is writing for two separate audiences: fellow historians of technology as well as mid-career military officers who represent the rising generation of top commanders and policymakers. This may seem a tall order, but the author's diverse background—retired military pilot, Ph.D. in History of Technology, former Commandant and Dean of the U.S. Air Force School of Advanced Air and Space Studies—allows him to bridge this gap . . . Schultz provides readers with both the historical case studies and the theoretical tools to clearly demonstrate what too few policymakers seem to fully grasp: there is no such thing as technological determinism. —Alan D. Meyer, Auburn University, Technology and Culture Is the original concept of the pilot, going, going, gone forever in this modern high speed, highly technical, highly manoeuvrable, flying world? You will have to read the book . . . —Dr Ian Perry, FRAeS, Aerospace