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There's lots of debates in the Space world about the safety margins of modern rockets (specifically the fact that the ITS isn't planned to have an abort mode as (in the words of many SpaceX supporters), it "should be as safe as airplanes").

Now, I know that modern airplanes are crazy safe (as in, the last fatal crash of a major US airline in the US was just a month after 9/11), but I presume that back in the 1920s seats on airplanes were sold commercially without passengers having an abort mode either, and those airplanes were much less reliable than modern ones.

How has the accident per flight statistics changed throughout aviation history?

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  • $\begingroup$ Are you specifically asking about the 20s? $\endgroup$ – Simon Feb 26 '17 at 7:54
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    $\begingroup$ Your question is quite good but maybe a little too vague. You should precise what you mean by "fatal accident" (does it imply injuries? aircraft lost? does it include delibarated act to loose the aircraft --terrisism, suicide,...--?) $\endgroup$ – Manu H Feb 26 '17 at 8:29
  • $\begingroup$ As it stands this question is very broad, maybe narrowing down to a specific decade might help? $\endgroup$ – Notts90 supports Monica Feb 26 '17 at 9:39
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    $\begingroup$ I believe the OP is looking for a general statistics of accident rate of commercial air travel since ~1920s (perhaps one data point per 5 years / per decade), which makes sense and is not too broad. $\endgroup$ – kevin Feb 26 '17 at 12:11
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    $\begingroup$ Related: Airline safety: what happened between 1959 and 1962? which actually covers the period 1959 to today, e.g. in this graphic from Boeing. You seem to ask about the US only, the FAA was created in 1958, that will be difficult to get statistics before 58. $\endgroup$ – mins Feb 26 '17 at 13:09

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