Jay H

History of the inverted yoke controls in aircraft

I happened upon a post on an MR2 spyder board about the sequential, how it's pull back to upshift and push forward to downshift and how somebody thought it didn't make sense.

I'm pretty sure the WRC folks have this configuration even when they mostly use paddleshifters but I'm wondering if this has similar history to flight controls how pulling back on the yoke with pitch the aircraft up and pushing forward goes down.

I would think that the g-forces in a plane make it a little easier to pull back when going up, applying more throttle, etc will push the pilot back. Somewhat similar but in a lesser scale, the driver, while accelerating seems more intuitive, or perhaps inherited from flight controls, pull back to upshift.

Do you think that the decision for sequentials stems from flight controls or some other kind of user interface research?

Jay

You are the crispy noodle in the vegetarian salad of life

Max Leung

No idea.

Remember when the yoke was between the pilots legs on older (WW2?) aircraft? If they did that to cars, do you think it would appeal to the testosterone-affluent crowd?

Mahatma Gandhi, as you know, walked barefoot most of the time, which produced an impressive set of calluses on his feet. He also ate very little, which made him rather frail and with his odd diet, he suffered from bad breath. This made him...a super-callused fragile mystic hexed by halitosis.

Gameshow host: "Is taking Viagra kosher during Passover dinner?"
Whoopee Goldberg: "Not if it leads to pork."
Kermit the Frog: "Hey, that's my line!"

Yee-Ming

I dunno, makes sense to me actually, on a regular manual you'd pull straight back to shift from 1 to 2, or from 3 to 4. It's only because of the "H" shape that from 2 to 3 or 3 to 5 seems a push forward, but accompanied with a rightward motion midway.

Philip_G

pulling back on the yolk corresponds to the reaction of the little airplane on the attitude indicator. Simple as that. Pushing forward to raise the nose makes no sense.


Plenty of stick airplanes around, look at the flight deck of most airbus, though it's a side mount.
the cub, supercub, aeronca champ, decathlon, citabria, pitts, sukhoi, christen eagle, cirrus, lancair, many many many general aviation stick airplanes still kicking.

~pg (CMEIL CFI-I)

Oh and as far as the manual/auto gate, in a 5 speed which way do you go to upshift? 1-2 3-4 and 5-6 you pull back.
2-1 4-3 6-5 you push forward. Makes sense to me.