Post amazingly cool pictures of aircraft (Volume 1)
Discussion
Eric Mc said:
There is no real reason - apart from custom.
On helicopters, the commander DOES sit on the right.
Not always. With helicopters you have to worry about weight and balance across the aircraft, not just fore and aft. It depends on which direction the blades rotate. In most heli's the commander sits on the right, but not every one.On helicopters, the commander DOES sit on the right.
IforB said:
Eric Mc said:
There is no real reason - apart from custom.
On helicopters, the commander DOES sit on the right.
Not always. With helicopters you have to worry about weight and balance across the aircraft, not just fore and aft. It depends on which direction the blades rotate. In most heli's the commander sits on the right, but not every one.On helicopters, the commander DOES sit on the right.
Do you know which ones feature the commander in the left hand seat?
Russian Heli's normally have the Captain on the left.
As for why fixed wing captains generally sit in the LHS, here's an explanation that I've dug up from elsewhere that makes sense to me.
Here are several possible explanations (and the sources), which combine possible reasons for the pilot (captain) sitting on the left, with reasons why most aircraft are boarded from the left...
Early aviators would often navigate by following roads and railways. Indeed, on some routes across the deserts of the Middle East, furrows were ploughed in the sand so that pilots could follow them.
Aircraft flying in opposite directions along the same line would need to pass each other "port to port" (that is one aircraft's left-hand side to the other's left-hand side), so pilots tended to fly with the line they were following on the port side. In other words aircraft drove on the right.
Patrick Manley, Retired British Airways Captain Hythe Hampshire.
(Boating practice in the US, also uses "port-to-port" passing on open water, unless signaled othewise.)
The answer to this probably goes back long before the dawn of the aeroplane. Most of the First World War aircraft displayed at the Royal Air Force Museum have steps on the port side of the fuselage to enable the crew to climb in. Many early pilots were experienced horsemen, used to mounting a horse from the left-hand side--if you have a sword hanging on your left side it is easier to get onto a horse from the left than from the right. This seems to have set the trend: the first airliners were converted military aircraft and designers seem to have followed the convention. Now that airports have boarding piers designed for left entry it would be very difficult to break this habit.
Peter Elliott , Department of Research & Information Services Royal Air Force Museum, Hendon
When side-by-side seating for pilot and co-pilot first developed, the single joystick would frequently be between the two seats so that either of the crew could use it. For a right-handed pilot, it would be natural to sit to the left of the stick, leaving the co-pilot to sit on the right.
Ian, Ashford Middlesex (no other source info given)
By the end of the First World War the rotary engine was the most common design for powerful fighter aircraft. In this layout, the cylinders were arranged radially around the propeller's axle, and the axle was fixed to the aircraft so that the entire engine spun around it. The momentum of the spinning engine kept it turning even when it misfired, giving a fair chance of recovering if a misfire occurred.
When it came to steering rotary-engined aircraft, turns in one direction were with the torque of the engine, while turns in the opposite direction were against it, and required much more rudder movement to compensate. It so happened that the most successful manufacturer's engine spun in the direction that made left turns easier. As a result, pilots chose, whenever possible, to turn left, and the traffic patterns around airfields as pilots manoeuvred to land usually involved only left turns.
This persists today. Airfields where radio control is not used display a special visual signal if the traffic pattern is to the right, because this is the exception.
When side-by-side seating became available (pilot and passenger, or pilot and co-pilot in larger aircraft), including in later First World War bombers, the left-hand seat was usually configured for the pilot (with more complete instruments and controls), because that seat afforded better visibility for the relatively frequent left turns.
That answers the first question, and the second follows on from it. When the pilot in the left seat of a 1920s airliner taxied in to the terminal building, typically on unmarked grass, the aircraft would be positioned to minimise the distance the passengers had to walk. To do this safely the pilot had to be able to ensure that the nearest wingtip was clear of the building--and obviously the pilot would watch the wingtip that could most easily be seen: the left one.
Equally, the pilot would not park with the tail to the building, otherwise the engines' prop wash would blow directly over the waiting passengers and spectators. So the aircraft was parked alongside the building, with its left side closest to it. This is why the main passenger door was usually put on that side. By the mid-1920s, this had become established practice, and there the doors are still.
Michael Fortescue, Cheltenham Gloucestershire
(The usual airfield traffic pattern to approach and land, also involves left hand turns)
As for why fixed wing captains generally sit in the LHS, here's an explanation that I've dug up from elsewhere that makes sense to me.
Here are several possible explanations (and the sources), which combine possible reasons for the pilot (captain) sitting on the left, with reasons why most aircraft are boarded from the left...
Early aviators would often navigate by following roads and railways. Indeed, on some routes across the deserts of the Middle East, furrows were ploughed in the sand so that pilots could follow them.
Aircraft flying in opposite directions along the same line would need to pass each other "port to port" (that is one aircraft's left-hand side to the other's left-hand side), so pilots tended to fly with the line they were following on the port side. In other words aircraft drove on the right.
Patrick Manley, Retired British Airways Captain Hythe Hampshire.
(Boating practice in the US, also uses "port-to-port" passing on open water, unless signaled othewise.)
The answer to this probably goes back long before the dawn of the aeroplane. Most of the First World War aircraft displayed at the Royal Air Force Museum have steps on the port side of the fuselage to enable the crew to climb in. Many early pilots were experienced horsemen, used to mounting a horse from the left-hand side--if you have a sword hanging on your left side it is easier to get onto a horse from the left than from the right. This seems to have set the trend: the first airliners were converted military aircraft and designers seem to have followed the convention. Now that airports have boarding piers designed for left entry it would be very difficult to break this habit.
Peter Elliott , Department of Research & Information Services Royal Air Force Museum, Hendon
When side-by-side seating for pilot and co-pilot first developed, the single joystick would frequently be between the two seats so that either of the crew could use it. For a right-handed pilot, it would be natural to sit to the left of the stick, leaving the co-pilot to sit on the right.
Ian, Ashford Middlesex (no other source info given)
By the end of the First World War the rotary engine was the most common design for powerful fighter aircraft. In this layout, the cylinders were arranged radially around the propeller's axle, and the axle was fixed to the aircraft so that the entire engine spun around it. The momentum of the spinning engine kept it turning even when it misfired, giving a fair chance of recovering if a misfire occurred.
When it came to steering rotary-engined aircraft, turns in one direction were with the torque of the engine, while turns in the opposite direction were against it, and required much more rudder movement to compensate. It so happened that the most successful manufacturer's engine spun in the direction that made left turns easier. As a result, pilots chose, whenever possible, to turn left, and the traffic patterns around airfields as pilots manoeuvred to land usually involved only left turns.
This persists today. Airfields where radio control is not used display a special visual signal if the traffic pattern is to the right, because this is the exception.
When side-by-side seating became available (pilot and passenger, or pilot and co-pilot in larger aircraft), including in later First World War bombers, the left-hand seat was usually configured for the pilot (with more complete instruments and controls), because that seat afforded better visibility for the relatively frequent left turns.
That answers the first question, and the second follows on from it. When the pilot in the left seat of a 1920s airliner taxied in to the terminal building, typically on unmarked grass, the aircraft would be positioned to minimise the distance the passengers had to walk. To do this safely the pilot had to be able to ensure that the nearest wingtip was clear of the building--and obviously the pilot would watch the wingtip that could most easily be seen: the left one.
Equally, the pilot would not park with the tail to the building, otherwise the engines' prop wash would blow directly over the waiting passengers and spectators. So the aircraft was parked alongside the building, with its left side closest to it. This is why the main passenger door was usually put on that side. By the mid-1920s, this had become established practice, and there the doors are still.
Michael Fortescue, Cheltenham Gloucestershire
(The usual airfield traffic pattern to approach and land, also involves left hand turns)
AMAZING.
Accompanying blurb said:
Pilot Capt. Brian Bews ejects as his a CF-18 fighter jet plummets to the ground during a practice flight at the Lethbridge County Airport on Friday, July 23 for the weekend airshow in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. "He is alive and we believe right now that his injuries are non-life-threatening," Canadian Forces Capt. Nicole Meszaros told CBC News.
Eric Mc said:
IforB said:
Eric Mc said:
There is no real reason - apart from custom.
On helicopters, the commander DOES sit on the right.
Not always. With helicopters you have to worry about weight and balance across the aircraft, not just fore and aft. It depends on which direction the blades rotate. In most heli's the commander sits on the right, but not every one.On helicopters, the commander DOES sit on the right.
Do you know which ones feature the commander in the left hand seat?
Gassing Station | Boats, Planes & Trains | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff