Hi NG,

Roger Long wrote:
OK troll, I'll bite.

I'm only aware of one rigorous study ever performed to determine the
relative aptitude and safety of men vs women pilots as a group.

The study was of ferry pilots in World War II and looked at the
performance of men and women delivering aircraft to England.
Remember, this was in the days of poor weather forecasts and
primitive navigation.

The study corrected for training and experience to attempt to
determine if there was any essential difference between men and
women. The conclusion was that there was a statistical basis to
support the contention that men should not be allowed to fly aircraft
at all!

I have no idea about statistics, but will offer my opinion anyway:

Two abilities play a major role in flying an aircraft: spatial
orientation and the ability to perform several tasks at the same time.
While the first is mainly atributed to men, the second is clearly a
female stronghold!

So on the skill side it's 1:1. On the judgement side someone has
already mentioned the general statement, that women tend to act
incompentent, while men tend to act plain stupid.

Overall you can pull just the same arguments used generally in "women
driver" discussions.

regards,
Friedrich

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