Days of future past
Stephen Dowling describes the Royal Navy's post-war carrier-borne fighter aircraft, the Westland Wyvern, as having two contra-rotating propellors at the front of the aircraft, each spinning in a different direction
. Yep, that's pretty much the definition of contra-rotating
: spinning in opposite directions. But what drew my attention to this article in the first place, was the seeming contradiction between BBC Future—there's a clue in the name—and tales of pilots who ejected underwater
, past tense.
Perhaps this is taking lessons learned from past events into new directions for flight safety?*
He gets off to a good start with The pilots who ejected underwater – and lived. His description of Lt Bruce MacFarlane's ordeal was gripping and, because I'd come from the home page and overlooked the coda in the title, I wasn't sure he was going to make it. Actually, the whole article was pretty interesting.
But, having read it from beginning to end, top to bottom, I'm still none the wiser as to why it's filed under BBC Future. Since these events occurred while the pilots were working, and they survived, I'm sure Meredith Turits could've found space in BBC Worklife. Especially now that Jessica Klein has left the room.
* Spoiler alert: no, it's not.