I was reading a Finnish aviation journal from the 1930s and it had an interesting article on pilot physical requirements. It mentions a case when during WW One a group of experienced aces were tested for physical fitness. Quite a lot of them had such physical disabilities (asthma, one blind eye, overall weakness etc) that they would never pass a physical regs for post war pilots. On the other hanbd, the one had had the best score broke every plane he flew and later died of a heart attack.
The question is: why are military pilotsī physical regs so stringent when in truth they have no correlation as to the piloting prowess of the pilot? Apparently
Mick Mannock was virtually blind in his other eye. Today he couldnīt get any pilot license.