Why are British aircraft Left Hand Drive?

I have read that because of torque, helicopters (or at least American designed helicopters) like to turn to the right, so right turns were often performed.

So for visibility, the aircraft commander sat on the right.

The comment about cargo doors being in the right (like the S-55 and S-58 variants) would substantiate this, but instead of the pilot being put on the side of the door, the door was put on the side of the pilot.

But that does not explain why the Bell 47 and Hiller 12 series, the most common helicopters of their generation, had the pilots sit on the left…until you recall that they had a wide bench seat for two-three occupants. Putting the pilot in the far left made room for the collective.

However, Many modern light helicopter types keep the pilot on the left….The EC130 I inspected last week seemed to be set up for a left pilot…it has three bucket seats in front of its wide cabin.

Reputedly, the standard left-hand circuit was derived from the fact that Sopwith Camels turned more easily to the left because of the rotary engine,

Would it help to consider actual examples of the earliest aircraft with two pilot side-by-side seating? And how quickly did they realise the need to put the one in command (presumably pretty obvious to them and possibly again following naval practice)? And how quickly did it settle to uniformity?

I don’t know much about these early aircraft, so can’t begin to answer these questions.

Also if some of these early aircraft were multi- (twin-) engined, presumably those who read left to right would have preferred numbers 1, 2 to read in the same way. Then the pilot in command would want the best visual on engine #1 to kick off the whole game. (I think engine numbering was another forum topic.)

Hi All,

I too, was under the same impression/understanding that bazv mentions above and also with the connection of mounting horses on the left from the cavalry – influences of the army at that time – however, my understanding regarding ‘rotary wing’ 1st pilot being on the right hand side is due to the fact that early helicopters had the ‘cargo’ door on the right hand side of the aircraft and this made it easier for the ‘captain’ to have much more situation awareness?

GYD  

The ‘rules of the Air’ were very much nautical based and it was definitely possibly partly to do with that – converging (Head On) both a/c had to turn to starboard and therefore if the Pilot was sitting on the LHS he would retain a good visual with the oncoming traffic.

Also that Aerodrome/Airfield/Circuit/Pattern was usually left hand – so if flying around a left hand circuit (pattern) the pilot sitting in the LHS would have the best view of the Airfield.

Probably a couple of other factors as well 🙂

Good point re the horse as you always mount one from the l/h side and also a motorbike otherwise it feels totally wrong. I did see a couple of pilots getting in and out of Corsairs on the starboard side, which looked strange, on a programme called “Air Warriors” the other night.

Incidentally I believe that America used to have right hand drive vehicles and they changed to left hand drive in the 1920’s

Have you ever climbed onto a horse? I’m sure there was a letter in either The Aero or Aeroplane a hundred years ago asking the same question about seating. I can’t recall any fixed wing machines that have the ‘flying pilot’ on the right.

A more interesting question for you; Why have helicopters designers always sat the pilot on the right? Work that one out and earn a free lollipop.