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Aviation History
1942
1942 - 0020.PDF
8 FLIGHT JANUARY IST. 1942 OFFICES TO LET —OR HINDER (CONTINUED) The various zones allotted to each component for each class are only for illustrative pur poses. The list under "component" will be a very long one on modern aircraft, and some of the items may be allotted to alternative zones on certain classes of aircraft. This scheme strikes a happy balance between uniformity for the pilot and convenience for the designer, who is still free to move the component vertically and fore and aft within the appropriate zone, the exact position being determined on the mock-up. An item in Zone 2, for instance, will usually fall in a space between the engine" control pedestal and the rear of the pilot's seat. Pro viding the control is accessible, its location should be sufficiently uniform to satisfy the. pilot. Lever Geometry The second factor effecting uniformity is the. detailed appearance and action of the control in the cockpit. Take, for example, the flap lever; now if this lever were abso lutely identical as regards &hape, length, colour and material, from the ab initio trainer to a four-engined bomber, and if all other levers were respectively identical, we should be approaching a very practical state of uniformity. The Vickers ^ 2-WAV SWITCH FOR AIRSCREW PITCH CHANGE An example ot an electrical control mounted on a mechanical control for convenience of operation. A selection of different shaped knobs which might be standardised for various controls irrespective of their position in the cockpit. Wellington with dual control is an excellent example of Class 4. A second set of throttle controls are fitted in Zone 3. This can easily be done because it only affecte the handle of any component—it doesn't matter ^r scrap how the lever works the flap, whether it be through bits of string, masses of bell cranks or miles of pipes. Having got distinctive and standard levers it is only necessary to insist that they are mounted so that they always work in the same sense (i.e., lever up, flaps up ; lever down, flaps down. Some flap levers still have a fore and aft movement instead of the logical vertical one). Knob Shape and Colour To carry this idea to its logical conclusion, the knob of each control lever should be given a distinc tive colour and, fpr night-flying, a distinctive shape. I should like to see this scheme applied to the con trols for each of the following items: Under carriage, flaps, coolant shutter, landing light, two-, speed blower, etc. Whenever an instrument or an indicator goes with a control, it would be possible to make the lever and the rim ot the instrument the same colour (e.g., the radiator shutter lever might be blue to match the radiator thermometer). The throttles, mix ture controls and airscrew controls are already mounted in a suffi ciently uniform way, and I would only suggest that Ihe practice of colouring port ar^ff starboard con trols be discontinued so as to accentuate the importance of the colours allotted to the other con trol levers. Red and green knobs on throttle levers, etc., are decora tive but unnecessary. The only reason foi trying to obtain a standardised cockpit arrangement is to eliminate acci dents du? to the pilot failing to Continued on page 9.)
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