Wednesday's Random Slang-o-rama: By the seat of the pants

Are you someone who plunges in and does things by the seat of your pants? And, if you are a writer, do your characters act by the seat of their pants?

If the latter, and you write historical fiction, I hope your characters are mid-20th century, because...

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...This idiom, which is defined in The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer as meaning "using intuition and improvisation rather than method or experience," is relatively new. According to Ammer: 

This expression was invented by World War II fliers, who used it to describe flying when instruments were not working or weather interfered with visibility. It was transferred to broader use soon after the war.

The Phrase Finder pretty much agrees, noting that it is parlance from the early days of aviation:

Aircraft initially had few navigation aids and flying was accomplished by means of the pilot's judgment. The term emerged in the 1930s and was first widely used in reports of Douglas Corrigan's flight from the USA to Ireland in 1938. That flight was reported in many US newspapers of the day, including this piece, titled 'Corrigan Flies By The Seat Of His Pants', in The Edwardsville Intelligencer, 19th July 1938.

But... why pants? Seems like there's more to this. A Way with Words offers a little more background:

Back in the 1930s, airplane pilots didn’t have sophisticated instruments to tell them which way was up. When flying through clouds, they literally relied on changes in the vibrations in their seat to help them stay on course, flying by the seat of their pants.

NOW I'm satisfied. Back to my seat of the pants writing.

I'd say this pilot might've been flying by the seat of his pants, but it's about 20 years too early for that...
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