Gear Up, Mishaps Down: The Evolution of Naval Aviation Safety, 1950-2000

Fewer than five years after naval aviation led the forces that defeated Imperial Japan, that very organization was in serious trouble. The force had been drastically reduced and, despite the Korean War, growing sentiment supported by no less than the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff argued that the new Air Force could do anything that might be required of naval aviation. Meanwhile, the Navy’s mishap rate soared. The very survival of naval aviation was at stake. It took fifty years to turn it around. Today, despite hot wars, cold wars, contingencies, and peacetime operations in support of friends and allies, the Navy and Marine Corps accident rate is at least as good as that of the Air Force and approaches that of commercial aviation. Gear Up, Mishaps Down explains that this accomplishment was achieved through dedicated and professional leadership, a focus on lessons learned from mishaps and near-mishaps, a willingness to learn from other enterprises, and better leadership, training, maintenance, supply, and more.

Robert F. Dunn is a naval aviator who commanded a jet squadron in combat, the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga and the Naval Safety Center. His last Navy assignment was as Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Air Warfare. In retirement he served as Deputy Chairman of the NASA Aerospace Advisory Panel and Chairman of a GSA Blue Ribbon Panel to examine non-DOD government aircraft safety.