True, but when the engines quit, they at least had wings. A helicopter, now ... SPLAT!
evil not reduced by the rapid technological advances it spurred, but we can at least benefit from those advances
It's sort of like the way the demand for pornography has driven the audio-visual industry. We have DVDs and streaming video because the customers of porn paid for the development, so to speak.
SPLAT -- CRASH hardly a difference. Going down in either is often deadly. Helicopters can re-engage their rotors just before "landing" to reduce the speed of impact. I think (I'm not an expert on aviation) planes lack some of that capability.
But that's all a side issue -- we were talking airplanes vs airplanes. And WWII brought forth some amazing advances in technology. Not all of it good and some of it blessfully unrealized (the Nazis' intercontinental space bomber among them), but some of it has been a benefit to us (those of you who don't book tickets in airline steerage class).