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Old 8th Jun 2010, 18:18
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Genghis the Engineer
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Flight Test Forum.

Big aeroplane cockpit design is very much an iterative process - based upon experience and precedence, so most development is about small carefully analysed changes from what works - and what of-course thousands of pilots are already familiar with.

Those changes should in an ideal world be subject to rigorous ergonomic analysis, consultation, and flight testing. In an ideal world.

In practice most manufacturers have an unfortunate tendency to keep these designs away from the test pilots and other professionals (line pilots, human factors specialists) who might slow things up by introducing lots of complicated opinions - and these changes often then land in the flight test department with "just get it certified as quickly as possible" directive - absolutely the wrong way to do it, but it's what often happens.

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