Letter: Letters : Pilots' daughters

From R. W. Smith

Braunton, Devon

I was amused by your feature on coincidences, which included the claim that
most Israeli fighter pilots’ children are girls
(“That’s amazing, isn’t it?”, 17 January, p 24).

The idea that fighter pilots father mainly girls is neither new nor confined
to Israel. I first heard it as a newly qualified (and newly wed) Meteor pilot on
No 63 squadron at RAF Thorney Island in 1948. I heard the same on various
squadrons in Britain, Germany and the Middle East.

In 1961, I moved to Coastal Command but returned to the single-seat fighter
world at RAF Chivenor in 1971. The legend was alive and well, and remained so
until I retired years later.

So is it true, or did I meet a clump of clumps? Without figures I don’t know,
but my personal tally is two daughters, no sons.