by Dr Steve McCabe
IN THE AEROSPACE industry a jet engine ‘burns out’ when it runs out of fuel or its fuel supply is cut off. But the rise of the jet engine led to a different form of burnout. Following the end of the Korean War in the 1950s the jet engine, which up till then had been largely confined to military aircraft, began to dominate the civil airline industry. Nowhere was this more evident than in the USA where the 1960s saw a dramatic rise in the number of flights as jet engines offered cheaper, faster and more reliable travel arrangements.