Pom Pax,
Your:
"... Apparently work had started in 1939 but had not yet recommenced....". Nothing much has changed since......D.
Chugalug,
Your:
"....Those in the front were saved by the full harness Irving safety belts (a rare innovation back then)...."
Yes, indeed. No doubt they were rather expensive to buy. But over on the far side of your field the Fire Section would have practice rescue hulks, it was a pity to see the four-point pilot harnesses burn with the dummy when a fire got the better of our brave lads (as did happen from time to time). They weren't guarded at night, you'd only need a pair of strong wirecutters.... How useful they'd be, and how nice they'd look in the cockpit of your TR3, MGB (
dare I say Mini ?), etc.
Commander (Air) had really to hammer the table to discourage these endeavours !
Ah, the impetuosity of youth ! While I share with you your irritation at the mobile obstructions (mostly wearing flat-'ats - as indeed I do myself) that are an increasing feature of today's roads, demography points to an increase in their number as the years go by.
So, short of having a maximum age for driving licences (and I believe there are some centenarians who still have them), we have to put up with the old fellas yet. There are advantages. Consider:
Suppose your "open road" cruising speed to be V mph. Then the severity of the prang will relate to ½mV² - yes ? But your give-and-take average speed will be around 6√V mph. (Motorways: 7-8√V mph, according to traffic conditions.) Strange but true ! (Authority - 75 years driving experience). So twice as fast will give you four times the whack on the head
, but you only cover 1.414 (?) times the distance on the ground
. It's not a fair swap.
Festina Lente !....D.
(hasten slowly)
Cheers, both. Danny.