james ozzie,
Only a few days ago, a kid got killed here in France, climbing on top of a goods wagon - to recover a football IIRC. Drew an arc from the live 25kV overhead catenary .... Got quite a lot of TV coverage, to alert as many people as possible.
I like this thread, even if it deals with a lot of disjointed subjects....
The choice of 115V, of 400Hz, of single-phase and three-phase, of 28V DC, of DC for certain circuits and AC for others, are in a way all totally disconnected.
In a different world, we might well have seen 230V, 500Hz, and 48V DC as the aviation standard.....
And to add another spot of trivia....
Concorde electrical signalling (fly-by-wire if you prefer) used 1800Hz for the synchros, etc. to cut down as much as possible on interference from harmonics of the basic 400Hz systems.