1) American thriller novel 
A fail-safe or fail-secure device is one that, in the event of failure, responds in a way that will cause no harm, or at least a minimum of harm, to other devices or danger to personnel. Fail-safe and fail-secure are similar but distinct concepts. Fail-safe means that a device will not endanger lives or properties when it fails. Fail-secure means ...
(from the article `strategic weapons system`) Each of these weapons systems was an intricate network of communications among people and missiles carrying hydrogen bombs. Elaborate design, ...
a design property of an item which prevents its failures from resulting in critical faultsa design property of an item which aims to prevent its failures from resulting in critical faults
A system which closes the throttle and moves the control surfaces to pre-set positions in the event of loss of signal from the transmitter Required by larger models and is intended to bring the model to earth quickly in the event of radio interference or transmitter failure
[adj] - guaranteed not to fail 2. [adj] - eliminating danger by compensating automatically for a failure or malfunction
adjective eliminating danger by compensating automatically for a failure or malfunction; `a fail-safe device in a nuclear weapon to deactivate it automatically in the event of accident`