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COCKPIT STUDIES - The Boundaries of the Maximum Area
for the Operation of Manual Controls

Barry G. King, Dorothy J. Morrow, and Erwin P. Vollmer

Report No. 3, Project X-651
Naval Medical Research Institute
National Naval Medical Center
Bethesda, Maryland

15 July 1947

This annotation is taken from: Annotated Bibliography of Applied Physical Anthropology in Human Engineering, by Robert Hansen and Douglas Y. Carnog, H. L. Yoh Company, Philadelphia, PA, Aero Medical Laboratory, Wright Air Development Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, May 1958.

"The boundaries of the maximum working area for operation of manual controls may be represented by a segment of the shell of an ellipse; the shell is about five inches thick. The maximum dimension to the periphery of this shell is found at approximately shoulder height at 105° to the right or left; dimensions diminish as the arm is brought to the zero position and as the arm is raised or lowered.

'Average reaches for 139 subjects varied between 36.8 inches and 13.1 at various points on the elliptical segments; dimensions within 0° and 75° satisfactory for 93 per cent of the sample varied from 31.6 to 11.6 inches when seat back was 13° from vertical.' Anthropometric measurements are given for a large number of subjects. The problem of representative samples f the military population is discussed. A simple rapid method for further testing of dimensions, selection of pilots and studying placement of controls is described. 

The report is 47 pages long, including 12 tables, nine figures, and three appendices. The bibliography contains eight references. Two figures are included with this annotation." 

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