The Risk of Aviation

Progress, Volume X, Issue 4, 1 December 1914, Page 145

The Risk of Aviation

Ask anyone whether aviation is a dangerous game and he will reply —very.” He bases his conclusions on the many newspaper reports of the accidents which befall airmen. Yet from the statistics the risk is not nearly so great at it appears to be. True, a year or so ago the betting was about 5 to 1 against the aviator being killed, judging by the insurance rates charged, but these, be it noted, are always based on an estimate sufficiently conservative to safeguard the interests of the shareholders in the insurance concerns. That the flying game is becoming safer every month can be gauged from the fact that unusual premium rates are in the ratio of 5 per cent, of the sum assured or 20 to 1 to put it in the language of the racecourse. When one pares these odds with the 33,000,000 to 1 in regard to being killed in a railway train, or the odds of over a million to one in a motor car accident, which are the statistical ratios, it becomes apparent that flying is still a most perilous enterprise. But it is a tribute to the daring and courage of the young men of the present day that so many take up flying with complete disregard of the risks it entails.