I will not answer the old age question, but I will answer the Helicopter dilemma:
Once I saw an interview made to Mr. Sikorsky regarding this matter and told that when he flew his first helicopter he did (of course from the left seat), then he trained an assistant and this person seated on the right seat, this assistant trained some (I dont remember how many) other pilots to be Helicopter Flight Instructor for the military, that was the only at first costumer for that contraption; as those new flight instructors were trained to be seated on the left seat, they trained everybody else to be seated on the rigth seat, and so the monster was created.
Discuss!!!