Classic Flying

[NeilR]

The US Department of Transportation has an online a special collection library which includes investigations of aircraft accidents from 1934-1965. I have started to read them, and they are a great source of information about flight operations. When I first started looking, the second one I opened was a Capital Airlines crash of a Viscount. This was 1960 and it's amazing how low some of the cruise altitudes were, cross country at 5-8000 feet. Many reports have fairly detailed descriptions of flight operations. The Viscount crash was interesting as the operation of the autofeathering was central to the crash. This was a time when a pilot flew the aircraft and the engines, with great attention to both.

There are several Viscount accidents presented, might be some BAC 111 incidents in their somewhere. It may seem a little dark to read accident reports, but they are a great source of flight operation material, and give an insight into operations from the thirties to the sixties, Is there is a similar resource for AIB reports?

here is the link http://dotlibrary.specialcollection.net/