Port & Starboard versus Left and Right
 

In reading aviation safety reports, I have noticed it is common for the reports to refer to "left" or "right" when describing manoeuvres but also when describing the side of an aircraft on which damage occurred etc. For example, https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/...ts/AIR2210.pdf identified the "upper left" attachment bolt being missing in that accident. The problem when referring to "left" and "right" is that it assumes everyone consistently takes this to mean "left when looking forward" or "right when looking forward". The use of "port" and "starboard" is still common in the maritime world but doesn't appear to be so in aviation, even though I thought it previously was?
In searching about this topic on PPRuNe, I did find the thread "Clear Left(side)" for which Chris Scott had remarked (#15) on "Port" and "Starboard" having been used in the past for clarity.
Has there been a change in normal terminology and if so, why did "Port" and "Starboard" fall out of regular use?

It gets worse, the left/port engine used to be number one. 😒

Today's training is becoming generally more truncated - CBT at home instead of 'chalk and talk' in a classroom setting, for example. I would imagine that some instructors nowadays have forgotten - or never knew - why Port and Starboard are less ambiguous than Left and Right.

No time to check this, but I think 'Starboard' comes from the steering board, fitted on the right of ships, that was used before a central rudder became possible.

Any vessel's orientation is based on it travelling forwards, so not too much chance of confusion. ATC use 'left' and 'right', but of course, pilots seated at the front of an aircraft will be in the correct orientation for those instructions to be unambiguous.
If observing a vessel though, or in accident reports, as the OP points out; 'Port' and 'Starboard' is more precise.

Hi Helispotter
Your question reminds me of one of my old navigation instructors who announced that he had always struggled with port and starboard. From an early stage of his childhood, his father had endlessly repeated "always remember son, port is right and starboard is left, knowing that saved my life on many occasions and one day it could save you, so remember son, port is right and starboard is left."

His father was a rear gunner on Lancasters.

Cheers
TeeS

I used to fly in East Asia. One particular crew member (a winch operator) tended to say “Reft” and “Ligh”. So you could never anticipate what he was beginning to say. :ooh:

When flying for an Asian airline if a member of the cabin crew reported something as being on the left or right of the aircraft I used to ask 'is that Captains side or co-pilots side?' Helped remove the ambiguity.

Red Right Return.

Apologies for nautical content. ;)

- Ed

Whats left
 

Nav lights - Red is where your thumb is on the right.
Could never remember the port- starboard.
Big proponent of Left and Right and this is obviously from the pilot position as we’re the center of the Universe.
Pretty much.

On US ships, right and left are used for helm orders only. This avoids confusion when someone says, "what is that 20 degrees to starboard" followed by the helm responding "20 degrees starboard, aye." followed by the conn saying something nautical but not repeatable.

"The port goes down the throat" is how I was taught to find the throat and peak halyards on a gaff-rigged vessel. The throat halyard is attached to the end of the gaff by the mast, and is hauled on the port side.

Left is port, as in "airPORT"; its the side where you and your passengers come up the gangplank.

I learnt as a sailor that port was the side that traditional ships were designed to bring to dock. So I guess that the "steering board" would have been on the other side makes sense. Port has the same number of letters as left. I also learnt the port (wine) / red colour association for the lights. I understand that the channel markers are the other way around in the US, but either way it depends whether you are going upstream or downstream as to which you hold to your left.

I've only been a pilot for a couple of years but have never heard the use of port/starboard in an aviation context or textbook. I must admit I did wonder, but left/right seems to work OK. I haven't seen it mentioned in any of the old flying books I've read either, such as Stick and Rudder or Sagittarius Rising.

In sailing we called "Starboard" to announce our intent to exercise right of way due to the tack we were on. (Pissed off a couple of bigger and considerably more expensive boats a couple of times who were apparently working on the assumption that size and wealth were the deciding factor).

My memory reminder:
Left, same number of letters as in Port and by default Red.
Right, same number of letters as in Green and by default, Starboard

I worked on military vehicle design - we tried Streetside and Curbside, but then the Brits made that unreliable for foreign military sales. Sigh.

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.

It still is as far as I know.

Agree, Port and Starboard are nautical references, not sure why a minority of people use them in aviation but they do

It used to be Starboard and Larboard iirc.

It originates from steuerbord and backbord when the ships direction was controlled by a steering oar on the side of the vessel ..the helmsman had his back to the other side..the vessels had to dock on the side that did not have the steering oar for obvious reasons and backbord became port…”wisdom from an old sailor!”

Then you never have been in a cockpit of the famous BN2. Look what it says on the starter switch on the overhead panel.

I am not allowed to post URLs, but google it up and you will see, what I mean ;-)

During my RAF QHI course I was teamed up with a Royal Navy pilot.

When spot turning the helicopter I’d been trained to announce “TAIL GOING LEFT”, “TAIL GOING RIGHT” or “MOVING BACK” etc as required for the benefit of crew cooperation.

My RN colleague used to instead say stuff like “TURNING TO PORT”, “TURNING TO STARB’D” and “GOING ABAFT!”

I think he just did it to confuse me, but I did get used to it and sometimes imitated him with a pirate accent.

Thanks to all for the feedback on this, including funny tales. EXDAC, stilton: not sure how I got it in my head that Port and Starboard had been common in aviation. Following the feedback, I looked up my 1994 dictionary of nautical terms and after explaining that "the left side was called the larboard side until the 17th century, when port was adopted to reduce the confusion caused by similar-sounding larboard and starboard" (per ubx99) it even indicates: "the use if port and starboard have also begun to give way to left and right"! Just be careful if you are a tail gunner though!

Oh, and I have since found this other exchange on the topic, similar to comments above: https://aviation.stackexchange.com/q...ed-in-aviation

Just my two pennyworth as an ex RN airframe driver, we were brought up proper and always used Port and Starboard in naval aviation. Even formation flying references would be echelon port, echelon starboard, etc. It followed me throughout my civilian flying and I’ve never even considered that there would be aviators who don’t use the terms!

Apparently larboard is the side from which a ship would be loaded, from middle English latebord. Clearly wiser to say "port" which will not be misheard.

As for me, I am sinister rather than dexterous.

My Dad always Port and Starboard, but then he was on Sunderlands ;)

I have never flown, or been in, a BN2 but I confirmed they do use port and starboard as descriptors:

https://britten-norman.com/app/uploa...Islander-1.pdf

Some references seem to suggest that left, aft, and right were the descriptors used for Trilander engines.

In 20 years only ever heard port/starboard from students who had boats. Pretty pointless in aircraft where the control seats only face forward. (At least, for the flying part of things. I have had FA's multiple times say left and right backward, since they spend most of their time facing that way! So an absolute airframe-based direction system is not a bad idea for them. But we have CA side and FO side for that, instead of nautical terms.)

BN Trislander engines are "Port, Rear, Stbd".

https://www.airliners.net/photo/Aurigny-Air-Services/Britten-Norman-BN-2A-Mk3-2-Trislander/315330/L

The RAF used the same terms for formation flying!

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.

Even going back 50-odd years, I don't recall much use of "port" and "starboard" in maintenance circles.

For much of my hangar-rat career, left and right engines were No 1 and No 3. :O

In the seventies I was at Marham on a Victor K1A and we were doing a Practice Pan with the examiner on board with the number four at flight idle, and on what was then called an overshoot, he called for full power on numbers one two and three. There was a bang and the number three caught fire and I put out a Mayday but I used the term 'the starboard inboard is on fire' !

I found at least two left, rear, right designations on controls in this image. Perhaps they were struggling with proper nomenclature and trying to keep everyone happy.

https://www.jetphotos.com/photo/8112742

Port and Stbd nomenclature was certainly still used in British Military Aircraft at least up to the (Metal) Harrier/Hawk T1 era (ie in parts catalogues and component names).
I officially changed over to L+R when I started working on Plastic Harriers (GR5 upwards) but it never bothered me which words were used - I was happy to use either system.
Same as I was happy to use any of the impressive list of different units for measurements and capacities,sometimes of course different units were used when comparing an export aircraft to a (same type of ) RAF Aircraft.

Just to muddy the waters a little, this thread reminds me of the single debrief comment from a JP5A formation trip I did, as a student, many years ago.

'Make sure you call the clock code correctly while inverted!'

Then you were never subject to anything remotely British, the old Fokker 27 had a port and starboard Rolls Royce Darts.

Except the 737; where they are stil counting engines. 1 and 2…

The RAF BFTS JP system never seemed to allow a criticism free debrief. I remember one of my few IF trips that I knew had gone exactly to plan and I’d flown very accurately.

As we walked in from the aircraft my instructor said:“Well, that was a very smooth trip!”

”Thank you, sir!” I replied, feeling very pleased to receive what was a very rare compliment.

”Not you, you ****, I meant the weather…! :rolleyes: “

Such was the RAF flying training system of the late 1970s.

I think Boeing changed from 1,2 to Left, Right with the 757/767.
Airbus are still 1, 2. I think.

Back in the late 60's to mid 70's, in the RAF, I was an airframe fitter on Lightning majors and it was, port, starboard, mainplane, tailplane and fin. I left to join BA on B747 majors and later B777's. There I was introduced to wings, horizontal and vertical stabilisers and of course left and right. The whole tail section was called an empennage, I had to look that up in a dictionary. Lots of nautical terms in aircraft construction, frame, stringer, bulkhead, deck, beam, spar, hatch, keel, longeron, tiller, to name some. Then you have the crew, Captain, purser, stewards and stewardess's.

The 787 uses Left and Right but at least one company uses 1 and 2 for communicating with the ground crew during engine start. Do military aircraft still use port and starboard?

The fact that Messrs Britten and Norman were keen sailors may have influenced this.