Control in the Sky

The Evolution & History of the Aircraft Cockpit

L.F.E. Coombs

• Publisher: Pen & Sword Aviation
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781844151486
• eBook ISBN: 9781473813359
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: 19th Century History
• Index: History

In the first early years of aviation, the control systems and instruments found in a typical aircraft cockpit were few and simple, but did form the basic pattern of requirements still used today. Although pioneering aeroplanes seldom achieved speeds above 100 mph or reached altitudes above 10,000 feet, pilots still required reliable information on speed, altitude, attitude, engine condition and compass direction. Instruments and controls were designed and positioned for mechanical convenience rather than pilot comfort. This situation continued well into the 1930s and then the remarkable increase in aircraft performance created during World War II generated an altogether different working environment for pilots who now had to cope with a multitude of information sources and far more sophisticated control mechanisms. Aircraft designers now considered how best to organise cockpits and flight decks to assist the pilot. This is the history of how ergonomically designed civil and military aircraft cockpits and flight decks evolved. Civil aircraft now regularly fly at transonic speeds at around 35,000 feet, and military jets at twice the speed of sound on the edge of space. These are demanding environments. However, modern cockpit-technologies, with simplified presentation of flight information and finger-tip controls, have eased pilot's tasks.

Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

CHAPTER ONE	How did it all start?
CHAPTER TWO	1914–1918 The Start of Air Power
CHAPTER THREE	Civil Cockpits 1919–1939
CHAPTER FOUR	Military Cockpits 1919–1939
CHAPTER FIVE	The Big Three of 1939
CHAPTER SIX	Civil Aviation 1945–1955
CHAPTER SEVEN	Military Cockpits 1945–1955
CHAPTER EIGHT	Civil Cockpits 1955–1970
CHAPTER NINE	Military Cockpits 1955–1970
CHAPTER TEN	Civil Cockpits 1970–2005
CHAPTER ELEVEN	Military Cockpits 1970–2005
CHAPTER TWELVE	Simulated Cockpits
CHAPTER THIRTEEN	Cockpits of the Future

Chapter Notes

Appendix

Bibliography

Index

Acknowledgements

During the preparation of this book valuable help and advice was given by individuals and companies such as Airbus, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Smiths Group and Thales. Four people in particular deserve special mention. They are named in order of appearing in my years of researching and writing about the cockpit and ergonomics in general.

Bill Gunston, the doyen of aviation writers, as technical editor of Flight magazine took a chance on publishing my opinions on the cockpit. That was the start that led to many articles, papers and lectures and eventually to books.

Professor John Rolfe, at the time he was with the RAF Institute of Aviation Medicine, encouraged my research into human laterality. In particular, for this book he has provided valuable reference material and advice relating to flight simulators.

Mike Hirst, at one time with Smiths Group and British Aerospace, and now at the University of Loughborough, has always been there to comment and advise on avionic systems and operational practices. His summary of PC simulation is just one of many of his papers used as reference material.

Philip Jarrett has provided valuable comments and advice from his extensive aeronautical knowledge base, in particular relating to Chapter One. He has also collected and advised on illustrations.

An aviation book relies on illustrations, and I am grateful to Mike Oakey, the editor of Aeroplane Monthly, and Wallace Clarke for their help. Also to Russell Plumley, Richard Bayliss, Duncan McGaw, Jennifer Villarreal and Nikitia Porter. Captain E.M. Brown RN kindly scrutinized my references to aircraft-carrier operations. I must also mention names from the 1950s, because they inspired me to research cockpit ergonomics at a time when civil aviation safety needed greater attention to the dials, switches and knobs. They are Captains Peter Bressey, Mike Broom, C.C. Jackson, Ron Gillman and Tony Spooner.

Finally, but not least, I must thank Peter Coles of Pen & Sword for his encouragement and advice, and above all his patience. In the end he is the one who brings the words and pictures together. But, of course, the opinions expressed and the errors are mine.

Introduction

Why write a book about aircraft cockpits? There could be a number of reasons, including the fact that there are few books on the subject compared with the thousands of other aviation books; that the cockpit is where the human pilot interfaces with the inhuman machine, or that among all the control positions on land and sea and in the air, it is the one requiring possibly the greatest application of skill on the part of the operator.

The cockpit is also the principal setting for drama in the air, both real and fictional. The ship’s bridge, the locomotive cab, the control room of a submarine or the cockpit of a racing car provide dramatic locations in which a man or woman has to exercise skill and judgement. However, compared with an aircraft none provides such an extreme example of a machine that is so unforgiving of error, lack of attention, carelessness or inadequate training on the part of the human element.

The two pioneers of controllable heavier-than-air flight, Pilcher and Lilienthal, made themselves an integral part of their glider. The Wright brothers’ Flyer of 1903 incorporated a position for the pilot at which were located the few instruments and controls.

Anyone researching the early history of the cockpit is faced with a bewildering array of different types and ideas for the pilot’s position and equipment. Not until about 1910 were pilots given some protection from the slipstream and elements by covering the aircraft’s skeletal frame with fabric and leaving an opening on top for the pilot’s head and shoulders. Between 1914 and 1918 the demands of war forced the rapid development of new aircraft and their equipment. The regulating authorities were hard pressed to provide specifications relating to structures and engines, let alone cockpit design. Obviously by 1914 it was not necessary to pontificate over how the aileron, rudder and elevator controls should move or in which direction their associated levers should move, because the control stereotypes, which are still with us, were by then well established; whereas, although the number and type of instruments might be part of a government specification, their position was left to the aircraft manufacturer.

It is important to emphasize that until about 1915 a pilot was not very dependent on instruments. The most important ‘instrument’ was the sound of the engine. If it did not sound healthy then greater attention would be paid to the rpm and oil pressure instruments. This meant that it did not matter very much where the instruments were placed because they were not being constantly ‘scanned’. It was not until pilots became dependent on frequently scanning both flight and engine instruments that their relative positions to each other and to the pilot became important.

By 1914 the word ‘cockpit’ was being used increasingly in contemporary writing. However, finding the cockpit being written about as the centre of interest before about 1930 is rare. When describing a ‘new machine’ writers tended to dismiss the cockpit and its equipment with a few words. A few lines about the word ‘cockpit’ itself are necessary. Today in the English-speaking world ‘cockpit’ is the most commonly used word when describing where the pilot or pilots sit. However, when there are two pilots seated side-by-side in a large transport aircraft we find ‘flight deck’ is sometimes preferred. There appears to be no accepted rule on the subject. Within the general meaning of the position from which an aircraft is controlled, there are single-seat, side-by-side two-seat, tandem and separated cockpits, some open and some enclosed. There are also jettisonable cockpits and prone-pilot cockpits, and pressurized and unpressurized. And we must not forget the microlight pilots whose ‘cockpits’ are as rudimentary as those of the first decade of powered heavier-than-air aircraft.

As for the origin of ‘cockpit’ as an aviation word, we might assume that as those in aircraft of the first decade were often low sided then they were similar to the shallow opening in the deck of a small sailing vessel occupied by the helmsman and tiller. In the eighteenth century one of the lower compartments of a British warship was called the cockpit.

This book addresses a number of interconnected themes which make up the history of the aircraft cockpit. They are:

The emergence from a number of early ideas of an internationally accepted arrangement of hand and foot controls.

The continuing efforts to provide controls and instruments that kept the human pilot in full control of the machine. In other words, keeping in step with the machine and not ‘losing the plot’.

The technical steps taken to provide the pilot with a comfortable working environment and at the same time avoid excessive workload and fatigue. Paradoxically, a too comfortable environment along with an uneventful flight might induce sleep, or at least a loss of a safe level of situation awareness.

The provision of an ever increasing sophistication of systems, mostly electronic, which answered the pilot’s questions of where am I and what do I have to do to get to the next waypoint or destination.

These key themes are discussed against the background of the continuing advance made in aircraft performance. From 1903 onwards each successive generation of aircraft went faster and higher, and many were very much larger. This being so, they entered operating environments that placed ever increasing demands on a pilot’s abilities. Keeping the pilot in control, both physically and mentally, required the development of increasingly sophisticated controls and instruments, as well as life support and safety systems.

One theme runs as a thread through the history of the aircraft cockpit. This is the influence of human laterality. Laterality is a slightly pretentious word, but it is a useful one because it embraces such human characteristics as hand and side preference as well the influences of the right-hand world in which we all live. It can also influence a pilot’s reaction to events within and outside the cockpit. Left hand on throttle and right hand on stick in the single-seat cockpit may not have come about by chance, and neither did the once ubiquitous left-hand circuit.

As will be described, the pilot’s place was not always given adequate consideration by design offices. On too many occasions ‘that will do’ or ‘that looks about right’ (TLAR) ruled in the drawing office. In the first half of the twentieth century many pilots were of the opinion that designers rarely considered the pilot’s needs. If we were able to study all the incident and accident reports published since 1903 we would find that there are many examples of inadequate or non-existent ergonomics in the chain of events and circumstances.

No attempt is made to describe and comment in detail on every type of cockpit. The number of aircraft types put into service since 1903 runs into thousands. Instead, a selection is made among the many, particularly if they are typical of their generation or include unusual or important technical features. The inevitable result is that some readers may be disappo...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents