Cockpits through the Ages

The first air flight of just over a few hundred metres by the Wright Brothers was performed a little over a century ago at Kitty Hawk. Yet in just one century, the plane has advanced from little more than a rickety collection of piping and fabric to a supersonic plane capable of traversing the globe.

These aircraft are even able to land on autopilot. In fact certain airlines such as Turkish Air have mandated that all landings will be performed using the autopilot. This policy was to have tragic consequences for its crew when on attempting to land at Schiphol airport near Amsterdam, the autopilot malfunctioned. Instead of reverting to manual control, the pilot resolutely stuck to Company Policy regarding the use of the autopilot. Amongst the deaths were the 3 flight crew whereas most passengers escaped without serious injury.

Main picture: The cockpit of the 1903 Wright Flyer

What exacerbated the situation was that the flight crew commenced their pre-landing checklist late so that the fact that the autopilot was providing spurious incongruous commands was unnoticed by the crew which was otherwise engaged. On the other hand, when an Austrialian plane experienced a similar fault whilst landing at Sydney airport, the pilot immediately switched to manual control before the deliterious effects of the commands stalled the plane.

Whilst technology has undoubtedly removed the drudgery from flying, over-reliance on the automated functions have placed the passengers’ lives at risk.

Finally a little known fact about flying during WW1. Even though the use of parachutes was not common, the Air Ministry decided against their issue in case the airmen used it a non-emergency situation!

Peculiar but true.