Pilot life spans
While browsing through old company magazines from the 80s and 90s prior to a clean out, I was struck by the number of old colleagues then dying in their 60s and 70s whereas nowadays many seem to be surviving into their 90s.
Are there any statistics to confirm a change?
Was it a function of the stress undergone by the wartime generation, a career spent in smoke-filled cockpits, the stress imposed by old fashioned training and checking techniques - or all of the above?