Back in 1926, when the army was designing its first-ever cockpit, engineers had measured the physical dimensions of hundreds of male pilots (the possibility of female pilots was never a serious consideration), and used this data to standardize the dimensions of the cockpit.
That was an interesting article. Thank you for finding it.
One thing that had to be said of the older equipment from farm tractors to aircraft was the lack of thought regarding ergonomics. In my old 1953 Piper Tripacer it was physically impossible to retract the flaps and hold the brakes and keep your eyes on the runway.
This type of thinking is still fairly common today. Almost anything to do with economics and demographics is reported as an average: average income, average house price, average household.
It doesn’t seem to negatively affect any of the decisions made by governments. /sarc
Most pilots I know will gladly tell you they’re not average.
I never really thought about it but WWII airplanes have a fixed seat and rudder pedals that can’t be adjusted or an even more primitive rudder bar. Everything designed in the ’50s or later has an adjustable seat and pedals which makes it much easier to taxi.
“The End of Average”
Average is the best of the worst and the worst of the best.
Back in the day, our military never thought of themselves as average. Now, we lower our standards so anybody may apply.
Political correctness will be our death.
That was interesting. Unfortunately I had to go to the Toronto Star to read it.
here’s some numbers:
3 3 3 8 15 1 5 2 10 2
aaaaand 342,768,314,159,230,422 ie in the quadrillions range
today’s math question, what is the ‘average’ of these eleven numbers?
whatever it is, its pretty much useless.
Oh, it is easy to measure averages. The scientists have even managed to figure out the global average temperature to within a tenth of a degree.
What is the average global temperature now?
/extremus sarcus
Note to Marco Rubio … ALL the military pilots I have ever known had really big hands. I think it helped with stick control.
The population of New Brunswick being relatively small, the incomes of the McCains, Irvings and Olands have always spiked the “average income” upwards quite markedly.
Average mean
Average mode
Average median
The mode would have worked best
Adjustable seats better yet
Interesting article.
Reminded me of this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLNAkPsjAEk
All they needed to make most cockpits fit the average pilot was a sliding seat adjustment. Years ago, I sat in the cockpit of an original WWII Spitfire. The seat had no cushion, and no fore-aft adjustment. The pilot used his parachute for a cushion. Yet it had one of the most advanced engines in the world, the Rolls Royce Merlin. Obviously, the ergonomics engineers were not on the ball. .
As for averages, in Canada, the average shoe size is 9. That doesn’t help the guy who wears a size 12 now does it!
Nor any of the other sizes from 1 to 8 or 10 and up to I think 22
22?? You’re not serious? A size 16 (Canada) is 12.5 inches long. But size 22! You can put an outboard on it and take it to Diefenbaker Lake on weekends!