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Aviation History
1957
1957 - 0101.PDF
25 January 1957 THE PILOT'S PLACE A Consideration of Cockpits, Then, Now and Tomorrow By L. F. E. COONfflS IN the earliest days there were no cockpits, let alone flightdecks; the pioneers of powered flight had to sit directly on thestructure of their machines. Protection from the airstream was considered even less necessary than in motor cars, some ofwhich at least had rudimentary windscreens. As with other vehicles, the position from which an aeroplane iscontrolled has depended primarily on the location of its controlling parts, such as the elevator and rudders. It has never been man-datory that the control positions of any kind of vehicle should be at the very front because that is the best place from which toobserve obstructions; the steam locomotive has almost always had its control platform mounted at the rear of the boiler. In aircraft, the next step was the unroofed cockpit, which, withonly one or two exceptions, was the rule until the early 1930s. In summer weather at medium altitudes it offered most pleasantflying; in cloud or precipitation less so. When enclosed cabs were first tried on locomotives in Britainsome of the drivers and firemen said they felt shut in and could not see properly. Confronted by an enclosed cockpit, a good manyaircraft pilots adopted the same attitude. In fact, whilst some of the early passenger machines had enclosed coupes or cabins, thepilot still sat with his head in the open—and preferred it that way. Like the bridge of a ship or the cab of a locomotive the cockpitof an aircraft is a necessary evil. In addition to occupying valuable space and adding to the drag, it has to accommodate a pilot whoinsists on leg- and elbow-room, stowage for an essential miscellany of equipment and controls, and (an elementary requirement)instruments so positioned that two eyes, two hands and two feet are a sufficient number of appurtenances for control. Nowadays, the control positions of an aircraft—large or small,civil or military—are placed as close to the "sharp end" as is practical. In contrast, some early single-engined transport aircrafthad the passenger cabin between the pilot and the engine; and in the Gee Bee racers of 1935 the pilot actually sat in the fin. Before aircraft became broad in the beam it was customary to ". . . there were no cockpits, let alone flight decks; the pioneers of powered flight had to sit directly on the structure of their machines." Claude Grahame- White with Henri Far man in 1911. "Flight" photograph place dual piloting positions in tandem; such an arrangement alsofavoured simple control runs. When it became possible to have two pilots sitting side-by-side again—some of the very early"string" aircraft had an athwartships pilots' plank—the question must have arisen: "on which side will the principal command posi-tion be located?" If the left-hand circuit was introduced before side-by-side piloting, then it is possible that it had an influence onthe choice by satisfying the right-handedness of most people. The right hand would instinctively be on the "tiller" whilst the leftoperated the other controls; at the same time a turn to the left, with the head over the side, would be easier with the right handon the stick. This may have encouraged a predilection for a left-hand circuit and for the left seat to be the commandingposition. The helicopter, incidentally, with its right-hand command, hasupset an almost fundamental rule of transport that the commanders of opposing vehicles should pass shoulder to shoulder. The rulesof the air ensure that captains of fixed-wing airliners sit on the passing side; road drivers do likewise. Determining the true reason for the location of the commandposition is as difficult as collecting the reasons why the movement of rudder pedals or rudder bar is opposite in effect tp the handle-bars of a bicycle. Cockpits as they are today only began to assume a definite formin the early 1930s. With the advent of such aircraft as the Handley Page H.P.42, both flight and communication controls—for theuse of two pDots—were concentrated in a specialized compartment. Despite the H.P.42's four engines its flight deck was not encum-bered by a multitude of instruments; the two largest items—and they were large-*—were the dual control wheels. In the years between the Vickers Vimy bomber and the H.P.42,controls had remained very much the same-^-particularly the small details such as switches, which were a genuine domestic type witha brass screw-on cover, sometimes fluted. Although American aircraft were amongst the first to have fullflight-deck instrumentation and the multitude of levers and switches attendant upon retractable wheels, variable-pitch pro-pellers, flaps and more complicated engines, they failed to have a logical, easy-to-read arrangement of instruments. The standardBritish blind-flying panel of six basic flight instruments, introduced by the R.A.F., was not adopted in the United States. Americanaircraft, both civil and military, had "mixed-up" instruments. But switches and levers were, on the whole, grouped in more logicalarrangements than in British aircraft (the designers of which in 1940 screwed control-handle brackets and quadrants to all partsof the cockpit, irrespective of the physical contortions required to operate them). Nowadays we read of air brakes which can beapplied without taking the hand off the throttle or wheel, simply by extending the finger tips. In 1940, R.A.F. pilots would comeoff the Miles Master trainer—which had a concentration of engine, "Flight" photograph "Despite the H.P.dYs four engines its flight deck was not encumbered by a multitude of instruments. The two largest items . . .. were the dual control wheels."
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