8

FLIGHT

OFFICES
HINDER

JANUARY IST.

1942

TO LET O R
(CONTINUED)

The various zones allotted to

each component for each class
are only for illustrative purposes.
The list under " c o m p o n e n t "
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. Providing the control is accessible,
its location should be sufficiently
uniform to satisfy the. pilot.
Lever G e o m e t r y
The second factor effecting
uniformity is the. d e t a i l e d
appearance and action of the
control in the cockpit. Take,
for example, the flap lever;
now if this lever were absol u t e l y identical as regards
&hape, length, c o l o u r 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 Wellington with dual control is an excellent example

A second set of throttle controls are fitted in Zone 3.

2-WAV
SWITCH
FOR AIRSCREW
PITCH CHANGE

of

Class 4.

This can easily be done because it only affecte the

handle of any componentit 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 S h a p e and Colour

To carry this idea to its logical conclusion, the

knob of each control lever should be given a distinctive colour and, fpr night-flying, a distinctive shape.
An example ot an electrical
I should like to see this scheme applied to the concontrol mounted on a
trols
for each of the following items: Undermechanical control for
carriage, flaps, coolant shutter, landing light, two-,
convenience of operation.
s p e e d 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, mixture controls and airscrew controls
are already mounted in a sufficiently uniform way, and I would
only suggest that Ihe practice of
colouring port ar^ff starboard controls be discontinued so as to
accentuate the importance of the
colours allotted to the other control 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 accidents du? to the pilot failing to
A selection of different shaped knobs which might be standardised for various controls
irrespective of their position in the cockpit.
{Continued on page 9.)