Talk of the casualty rates reminds of a comment in Air Chief Marshal Joubert de la Ferté's biography which was written in 1952. He remarked at upset he was during his pre war RFC days, when colleagues were killed in accidents. He explained that they were a product of a gentler Victorian age and were not inured to the thought of 'sudden and unpleasant death' which was brought on by two world wars.
That was a possible explanation for the lack of concern at the casualty rate in the fifties. After all many had been through the war and were well used to the idea of sudden and unpleasant death.
The pendulum has certainly swung the other way. Gentler times!