Meanings
- slanguncountableaeronauticsThe practice of letting accidents or failures (perhaps occasioning death, but not necessarily) identify engineering problems.
1 more example
“As pilots in the USAF, we used the term ‘Tombstone Engineering’ to describe a known potential catastrophic flight event that could have been avoided through additional design and funding, but ended in the death of pilots and/or aircrews, thus forcing that design change/aircraft modification. Emergency procedures, especially the warnings, in our flight manuals are literally written in blood…,” Coffindaffer said.
2024 March 19, Mary Baily, “Digital Access”, in Sand Mountain Reporter
Cite this entry
tombstone engineering. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tombstone%20engineering
“tombstone engineering.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tombstone%20engineering. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “tombstone engineering,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tombstone%20engineering.
Source: tombstone engineering on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.