Originally Posted by
EXDAC
I've been a pilot for well over 40 years and have been involved in aircraft systems development for longer than that. I don't recall ever hearing any part of an aircraft, or any part of an aircraft system, being designated as port or starboard.
Then you were never subject to anything remotely British, the old Fokker 27 had a port and starboard Rolls Royce Darts.
Originally Posted by
tdracer
It's probably worth mentioning that, for a long-time, long-range aircraft had (at least) two engines on each side. So a simple 'port - starboard' or even 'left - right' was not sufficient. Hence engine's 1, 2, 3, 4 (from left to right).
It wasn't all that long ago that I often heard flight crews (and even ground maintenance types) refer to engines on a twin as '1 and 2' - presumably as a bit of a throwback to the 747 (and perhaps 707).
However EICAS messages on twins have aways referred to the engines as "L and R" - while the 747-400 and -8 have them numbered 1 - 4.
Except the 737; where they are stil counting engines. 1 and 2…