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amigammon t1_irg2bhs wrote

Alternatively: The Boeing B17 designers poorly designed the gear handle to look like the flap handle and also didn’t install a weight-on-wheels safety to prevent the gear from being raised on the ground.

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danteheehaw t1_irh0vnv wrote

It was pretty early in aviation history. Engineers often are not operating the planes. It's easy to make something and not realize it's not user friendly. Simply because you made it, so from your point of view, it's obvious what it does.

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Lkwzriqwea OP t1_irg6tpk wrote

Pretty much, yeah. That's how I learned about it, as part of a talk on human factors in design.

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Kancho_Ninja t1_irg5tzy wrote

Alt-Alternatively: because of the constant mistakes made by pilots in misidentifying important controls, engineers improved the design and added safety features like weight-on-wheels.

By lowering the standards, the average IQ of a pilot could be just above room temperature and the passengers would be assured of a safe trip.

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amigammon t1_irg64y8 wrote

There at at least 1 million people in the air at any one time. Yes, safety.

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DroolingIguana t1_irj3ftu wrote

At any given moment there are more planes in the ocean then there are submarines in the sky.

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backelie t1_irkd3ia wrote

Are there any sub models which can temporarily shoot out of the water like a jumping fish/whale?

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barath_s t1_irz1wr1 wrote

It was early on in engineering days. BTW, it wasn't a mechanical engineer who found the issue and changed the shape. It was a psychologist

Psychologists Phill Fitts and Alphonse Chaponis realized the issue https://medium.com/swlh/the-flying-fortress-fatal-flaw-694523359eb

> One of his major contributions was shape coding in the aircraft cockpit. After a series of runway crashes of the Boeing B-17, Chapanis found that certain cockpit controls were confused with each other, due partly to their proximity and similarity of shape. Particularly, the controls for flaps and landing gear were confused, the consequences of which could be severe. Chapanis proposed attaching a wheel to the end of the landing gear control and a triangle to the end of the flaps control, to enable them to be easily distinguished by touch alone.

In other words, shape coding was created as a result of this.; you're speking with beneift of the hindsight created.

Weight on wheels safety is a far cry from when you have electronic sensors than an era when planes had everything mechanical or hydraulic

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