How to mount a fast jet ;)
 

Does anyone know the reason that tandem fast jets are always designed so that the crew enter from the port side? Perhaps it harks back to the days of the cavalry? Any thoughts? The question has this team of aircraft engineers stumped! :ugh:

Is it because that's the side with the opening? It'd be much harder to have to climb over the canopy.
BV;)

Port side mounting?
 

I seem to remember I got out of a Bucc on the stbd side. So I presume that I got in on that side.

The Ancient Mariner

Haven't you noticed? You enter an airliner from the left too. And, yes, your surmise is correct. Royal Flying Corps and all that. "Always treat your woman like you treat your kite!"

I find that the Left side is the correct term......Port is where ships go.....

The Sea Harrier steps were on the starboard side, as were the built in ones on the mud variant.

Cue no end of 'That wasn't a fast jet' banter.

Gnat - right
Hunter - left
Buccaneer - right
Hawk - left
Phantom - left
Vulcan - underneath
VC10C1K and VC10K4 - left
VC10K2 and VC10K3 - right

Picked up a jet from Boscombe once that had just had a mod flight tested. They put they steps up the starboard side. Very strange. Doesn't matter which really, but you learn the external checks from a particular start point, so it makes sense to stick with one side for the entire outfit.
Tiger Moth, Lightning, Jaguar, Harrier GR3, Tornado, LEFT
Jet Provost, Bulldog, Lightning T-bird, BOTH

I guess from BEagle's post that maybe Boscombe thought a Tornado was like a Bucc.

the steps for the Bucc fitted on both sides!

Pretty much the same as you mount it's pilot? :}

Remember from my days at Leconfield, we used to lower the jockeys into our Lightnings from the top using a sky hook.

Hmmm... "...the same as you mount it is (or, it has) pilot"? Doesn't make sense. Oh, do you mean the possessive of "it" - that's "its".
No worry - it still doesn't make sense. :confused:

Pedant hat off, end of English lesson to a Pom/Yank. :ok:

Touched a nerve then poofter? :E

Saab Lansen - right
Viggen - left (clamshell canopy but ladder seems always to have been on the left)
Gripen - right

I know the Swedes changed the side of the road they drive on, but they seem a bit undecided about their jets.

JT

One of life's mysteries...
 

The term "convention" springs to mind. The same question as to why captains generally sit on the left in multi-seat aeroplanes. Having come home to Oz where everything is strictly regulated, I have searched extensively on the latter to find that an aircraft captain can clearly sit wherever he likes because there is no rule that says anything else.

I guess the same applies to pilots mounting? They can choose which side is most convenient.

Other than that's where the ladder fits (making a right hand mounting most convenient), I am not sure why the SHAR and other RN jets came up the right hand side. Given aeroplanes were usually ranged along the starboard side of the ship, one reason could be that when manning up with a big wind over the deck it felt better to be forced onto the ladder and into the cockpit rather than the other way around.

I suppose that's also a possible reason why, when we had all the crab jets on board as well, they often used to be ranged along the port-side?

Tornado with "hot pit refuelling" and an "engine running crew change" was always get in/out on the right - all other times on the left.

LJ :ok:

You ever notice, DBTW, that nobody ever climbed up the starboard wing when there was no ladder available? Biggest pain in the arse was the T4 with no ladder and having to clamber over the inter-cockpit paraphernalia.

The Yanks had the right idea, with a nice little ladder that plonks out when you open the canopy but, enough of that, I can't be seen to be commenting positively about the seppos :)

My hypothesis is that people used the port wing when there was no ladder on the SHAR because they got in the habit of doing it when the probe was fitted. That gave you a bit of a shelf to 'jump' from. (Or to leave your sandwiches while you stowed the F700.)

F-104 was right side. Most USN early aircraft like the TBF Avenger/Corsair/Hellcat etc were right sided. The reason I was told was that is effectively the "inboard" side on carriers ops.

Pontius. The GR7/9/ AV-8B steps seemed to be set up (incredibly precisely) to ensure that when you were wearing your goon suit and thermal clobber you could get your right boot up to, but not over, the canopy rail. I seem to remember having to use your right hand to assist in the whole caper.