| 词源 |
fail-safe. The fail-safe system, intended to help prevent nu- clear war, was developed by the Strategic Air Command of the U.S. Air Force in the 1950s. Under the fail-safe procedure a bomber had to return home without dropping its bombs if spe- cific orders to drop the bombs weren’t received. Thus a failure to receive such a radio message would be a failure on the safe side that wouldn’t accidentally trigger a nuclear war. The term fail-safe is now used to describe any precautionary system. |