At the Controls

by Long, Eric F.; Avino, Mark A.; Alison, Tom; Bell, Dana

• ISBN13: 9781550463651
• ISBN10: 1550463659
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-10-01
• Publisher: Boston Mills Pr

Summary

This is perhaps the finest collection of cockpit photographs in existence. The National Air and Space Museum holds the world's premier collection of historic aircraft, but visitors to the museum must maintain a respectful distance. In At the Controls, NASM photographers Eric Long and Mark Avino use creative lighting techniques andphotography to duplicate the sensation of actually being at the controls inside the cockpit of 45 legendary aircraft, with access not only to the instrument panels but to the consoles as well. The reader experiences a pilot's-eye view. This book will be a treasured addition to every aviation library.

Author Biography

Eric Long is a senior photographer for the Office of Imaging, Printing and Photography Services. He has photographed collections at both the Museum of American History and the National Air and Space Museum.

Mark Avino has been the chief photographer for the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution's Office of Imaging, Printing and Photographic Services since 1983.

Editor Tom Alison is the chief of the NASM Collections Division, responsible for managing all aspects of care for the National Air and Space Collections. He is a former curator for the military aircraft in the collection and a retired Air Force pilot.

Edtior Dana Bell has been on the staff of the NASM Archives since 1981. He is the noted author of 17 books on aviation and an expert on aircraft markings.

Table of Contents

Foreword Photographers' Introduction

Introduction

Acknowledgments

Wright Brothers 1903 FlyerBl

Triot Type XlSPAD XIII Smith IV

Fokker D.VII

Bellanca C.F.Douglas M-2 Mailplane

Ryan NYP Spirit of St. Louis

Lockheed Model 8 Sirius TingmissartoqBowlus-du

Pont 1-S-2100 Senior Albatross Falcon

Boeing P-26A Peashooter

Northrop Gamma 2B Polar Star

Hughes Special 1 B Racer

Grumman G-22 Gulf hawk IIGrumman G-21 Goose

Northrop N-1M Jeep

Kellett XO-60 AurogiroVought 052U-3 Kingfisher

Grumman F4F-4 (FM-i) Wildcat

Supermarine Spitfire HF.Mark N/ITFocke-Wulf Fw 190 F-8

Ilyushin Il-2M3 Shturmovik

North American Aviation P-51D Mustang

Aichi M6A1 Seiran

Messerschmirt Me 262 A-1a Schwalbe

Arado Ar 234 B2 Blitz

Kugisho MXY7 Model 22 Ohka

Boeing B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay

Pitts Special S-1C Little Stinker

Piper PA- 12Super Cruiser City of Washington

Bell XS-1 (X-i) Glamorous Glennis

North American F-86A Sabre

Cessna 180 Skywagon Spirit of Columbus

Douglas DC-7 Flagship Vermont

Sikorsky UH-34D (HUS-1) Seahorse

Bell UH- 1 H Iroquois, Huey

Dassault Fanjet Falcon 20C Wendy

Mercury Capsule Friendship 7Gemini VII

Lockheed SR-hA Blackbird

Apollo Lunar Module LM-2SoyuzTM-10 Vulkan

Extra 260

General Dynamics F-16C Fighting Falcon

Airbus A32O

Space Shuttle Columbia

Photo Credits

Additional Reading

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

IntroductionThe cockpit of an airplane or spacecraft is where humanity and technology meet. It is where the pilot actually takes control of the machine. At the Controls gives the reader an opportunity to view the cockpits of a number of the aircraft and spacecraft in the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum collections. Many of these historically significant craft are one of a kind, others are well known, even by non-aviation buffs, for significant events in mankind's travel through air and space history.The wonderful cockpit images created by Smithsonian photographers Eric Long and Mark Avino are designed to give the reader an up-close-and-personal sense of just what the pilot's 'office' looks like in each of these craft. The particular craft were chosen to give the reader a sense of the advances and changes in technology; from the very simple hip cradle and wing-warping control of Orville and Wilbur Wright's 1903 Flyer to the magnificently modern glass cockpit in the NASA Space Shuttle Columbia. As airplanes developed in terms of performance and capability, so did their cockpits and controls.The origin of the use of the word cockpit to describe the area in which a pilot controls an airplane or spacecraft is difficult to pinpoint. The term was not used by the Wright Brothers when referring to the pilot's position in their Flyer, but by 1913 it was associated with the semi-enclosed area for pilots and passengers in aircraft having fuselages. Over time the term has evolved to one that specifically describes a position for pilots as they direct the flight of aircraft and spacecraft.That evolution is revealed as we see the changes and improvements in the flight instruments, navigational instruments, and actual flight controls reflected in these unique photographs. Early aviators controlled their craft by sight, sound, and feel. Instruments and flight controls were rudimentary, and the airplane's reaction, slow -- almost awkward by modern standards. As airplane engines increased in power, the craft's speed and performance also increased. Wood and fabric became aluminum alloy, and soon even stronger alloys, such as the titanium of the SR-71, were used. Today, we see high-strength composites as the common material in aircraft and spacecraft construction.Airspeed and altitude measuring instruments evolved to be larger in scale and more precise. With the historic flight of the Bell X-1 in October 1947, when Captain Chuck Yeager first flew faster than the speed of sound, another term entered the pilot's lexicon, Mach, and another instrument, the Mach meter, became important. Later, we see these speed-measuring indicators developed from round analog instruments to digital readouts combined with other information on a glass screen, as in the cockpits of the F-16, the Airbus, and the Space Shuttle.The attitude indicator made the pilot no longer dependent on visual confirmation of the airplane's position relative to the Earth; it also enabled the pilot to control the craft while in cloud or while otherwise unable to see past the front of the airplane. Early vacuum indicators became electrically operated, providing more reliability, and still later were developed to project their information on television-like screens, their input coming from an air data computer.Early aviators navigated completely by reference to landmarks on the ground. One of the earliest navigational instruments was the small, non-precision, wet compass, enabling the pilot to determine the basic direction of flight. This evolution of instrumentation can also be followed in At the Controls, as heading indicators and radio compasses turn into flight directors and precision-instrument landing systems, and on to the sophisticated, satellite-based Global Positioning System, which indicates the aircraft's position within a matter of feet.All the aircraft c