Niki Lauda has died

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lauda_Air_Flight_004

"The official investigation, lead by Thailand's Aircraft Accident investigation Committee, took about eight months, and was released with the "probable cause" stating: "The Accident Investigation Committee of the Government of Thailand determines the probable cause of this accident to be [an] uncommanded in-flight deployment of the left engine thrust reverser, which resulted in loss of flight path control. The specific cause of the thrust reverser deployment has not been positively identified."[18] Different possibilities were investigated, including a short circuit in the system. Due in part to the destruction of much of the wiring, no definitive reason for the activation of the thrust reverser could be found.[10]

As evidence started to point towards the thrust reversers as the cause of the accident, Lauda made simulator flights at Gatwick Airport which appeared to show that deployment of a thrust reverser was a survivable incident. Lauda said that the thrust reverser could not be the sole cause of the crash.[19] However the accident report states that the "flightcrew training simulators yielded erroneous results"[4] and stated that recovery from the loss of lift from the reverser deployment "was uncontrollable for an unexpecting flight crew".[20]

The incident led Boeing to modify the thrust reverser system to prevent similar occurrences by adding sync-locks, which prevent the thrust reversers from deploying when the main landing gear truck tilt angle is not at the ground position.[10] The aviation writer Macarthur Job has said that "had that Boeing 767 been of an earlier version of the type, fitted with engines that were controlled mechanically rather than electronically, then that accident could not have happened".[7]"

The real reason I'll check HN comments first.

> He really must be more widely known for that now.

No, here in Europe F1 is a household thing. Everybody nows about the race car driver. He worked as a F1 pundit in German TV and there is even the movie about him and James Hunt, "normal" people know about that. They don't care about aircraft technology.

That doesn’t prove it was safe, it showed it wasn’t 100% lethal.

If this had a 1:1000 chance of going wrong, how long would it be before the first plane making an emergency landing or worse? Probably a few days, at most. Who would be blamed for not grounding planes?

His grit, came back from a near-death burn injury in _six_ weeks to finish off the F1 season. The movie Rush (2013) made it more known in the popular culture.

And then of course he did this so often and so well that he was world champion 3 times and came close a couple more times.

How many airlines have you founded...?

Ferrari, on the other hand, could be having to fight with Haas at this rate. However, the only projections I've seen used S3 data from before the testing day and Ferrari apparently have new suspension (Which is very important around monaco)