Question from an ancient

[ChristiaanJ]

My apologies right from the start for this question, just plain curiosity from an ancient.....

I've flown as a flight test support engineer on helicopter flight tests (INTERESTING....) a long time ago. Agusta-Bell 212 mostly.
As such I've had about an hour in the right-hand seat, which I will never forget.

Somehow the question cropped up the other day... why is it "left-hand seat" in fixed-wing aircraft, and "right-hand seat" in rotary?

Left-hand seat in fixed wing dates from before WWII, but how did right-hand seat in rotary happen?

[Whirlygig]

Here you go - with other links as well!

http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=258841&highlight=hand+seat

Cheers

Whirls

[ChristiaanJ]

Whirlygig,
MANY THANKS!
I'll go through the "links to links" some more, but somehow this one makes sense to me.
"The very early helicopters had their controls fed straight to the mixing unit which was centrally located and there was seldom a second set of controls. Therefore having the collective in the centre of the aircraft meant less linkages - therefore flying pilot sits in right hand seat."