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Aviation History
1947
1947 - 1327.PDF
Editorial Director Editor Assistant Editor - and AIRCRAFT ENGINEER Art Ed/tor - G. GEOFFREY SMITH, M.B.E. C. M. POULSEN MAURICE A. SMITH, D.F.C. (WING CDR.. R.A.F.Y.R.) - JOHN YOXALL FIRST AERONAUTICAL WEEKLY IN TFIE W6RLD .- FOUNDED WO9 Editorial, Advertising and Publishing Offices; DORSET HOUSE, STAMFORD STREET, LONDON, S.E.I Telegrams : Flightpres, Sedist, London. Telephone : Waterloo 3333 (SO lines.) BIRMINGHAM, 2: ex KING EDWARD HOUSE, NEW STREET Telegrams: Autocar, Coventry. Telegrams: Autopress, Birmingham! Telegrams: Iliffe, Manchester. Telegrams : Iliffe, Glasgow. Telephone: Coventry 5210. Telephone: Midland 7191 (7 lines). Telephone: Blackfriars 4412. Telephone: Central 4857 COVENTRY : 8-10, CORPORATION MANCHESTER, 3 s 260 DEANSGATE. GLASGOW. C.2 : 26B, RENFIELD ST. SUBSCRIPTION RATES : Home and Abroad : Year. £3 I 0. Registered at the G.P.O. as a Newspaper 6 months, £1 10 6. No. 2016. Vol. Lll. August 14th, 1947 Thursdays, One Shilling. Outlook The Human FactorI N an article published in our issue of May 1st, 1947, a contributor who signed himself "Vertigo" drew attention to the serious risk we are running in over- looking the psychological reactions of what he termed " the link between the dashboard and the controls " (the pilot), to the maze of instruments, knobs and levers with which the cockpit of the modern flying machine is filled to overflowing. As he pointed out, "time and motion studies have been carried out on housewives cooking meals to determine the best design for the modern kitchen. But has anyone ever thought of doing the same thing in the cockpit, so that at least all the vital con- trols are arranged in the proper sequence, and in the correct sense, for natural and efficient action? " The obvious retort to that question is another: what is natural action? In what the French used to term the "heroic" days of flying there was much controversy about the three flying-controls. In the monoplanes de- signed by M. Nieuport in about 1911 the wing-warping (used on man ' early machines instead of ailerons) was done by the feet. ' M. Nieuport argued that it was natural for the pilot to " press down " the wing by step- ping hard on a footbar. The system did not become funeral, and the present one has become universally accepted but for a few two-control types of aircraft.f \w those days the flying-controls were pretty well all the pilot had in the cockpit. The health or otherwise of the engine was judged by ear, the speed largely by the draught on the pilot's face, and as for navigation, well, there was generally the sun, since little flying was done in bad weather. Things have changed since then, and scores of "gadgets" have been interposed between the pilot and his machine. But it is to be feared that all this gadgetry has grown and multiplied along somewhat haphazard lines, and that the pilot's psychology has not been given the consideration It deserves. To quote "Vertigo" again : '' Who knows whether there is something wrong ' somewhere, whether we are asking the brain to perform some function so foreign to it that, with all the marvel- lous devices in the world, the poor old human donkey may not let us down in the end ? '' In America they have been making an extensive study of this question, and in this issue we publish extracts from and comments on the results obtained by the American Aero Medical Laboratory at Wright Field. They make interesting reading. Probing the ProblemsG REAT changes have taken place since plans were • made for an International Air Congress to be held in England in 1940. That congress came to naught because of the war, but the programme that was mapped out in 1939 was a fairly ambitious one. For one thing, the Royal Aeronautical Society had chosen Stratford-on-Avon as a fitting scene for the event, and in addition to the reading of numerous technical papers there were to be many social entertainments, including luncheon parties, visits to places.of historical interest, a garden party, a ball, and two banquets. Science is fundamentally international, and there is little doubt that if the 1940 congress had been held, many interesting technical subjects would have been ventilated, probably including papers by German, French and certainly American lecturers. The Anglo- American Conference which the Royal Aeronautical Society has organized for September 3rd to 6th this year is a good deal less ambitious. For one thing, the present scarcity of almost everything has necessitated a curtail- ment of the social aspect, although this is not being overlooked. For instance, - there will be a dinner in London's Guildhall at which many notable people will be present. From the list of papers to be read by American and British specialists it is evident that in spite of the fact
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