Page 44 - World Airnews Magazine January 2021 Edition

WOMEN IN
AVIATION

LADIES IN THE LEFT SEAT

By World Airnews editor for the Americas Ed Hirsch

for decades to come. begin with a recruitment population that

Like the vast majority of the Air Force’s we’ve artificially halved because of how

f you have lived as long as I you might aircraft and aircrew equipment, the F-15 we design our cockpits and workstations,
Iremember the ti me when ge� ng was designed to meet the anthropomet- we’ve just doubled our work, and now we

behind the steering wheel of a car was ric specifications of a male pilot in 1967. make every operator in the seat have to

considered a male prerogative. My mother But in an Aug. 4 memo, the US Air Force be eight times better than the counterpart

took driving lessons when she was preg- mandated that future weapons programs they will face in a nation like China.”

The new guidance directs the Air Force
nant with me ninety years ago. use current body size data that reflects the Lifecycle Management Centre to conduct a
central 95 percent of the U.S. recruitment
Female emancipation and the Second population — a move meant to make pilot study that will solidify a more inclusive an-

World War helped women overcome the and aircrew jobs more accessible to women thropometric standard that would include
male dominance. The WAC - Women Auxiliary and people of colour. 95 percent of the US population eligible for

Corps ferried US Army Air force aircraft from recruitment in the US Air Force.

the US to England in 1942. These women did QUOTING VALERIE INSINNA OF THE But until that wraps up, all new-start Air

a very important and dangerous work. But AIR FORCE TIMES Force programmes must be designed with
the desire to pilot was awakened. Amelia Air Force acquisition executive Will Roper, cockpits, aircrew operating stations and

Erhard was a model for the young ladies. who signed off on the changes, said there is aircrew equipment that accommodates

After the war these pilot ladies did not a strategic imperative for opening the door eight anthropometric data sets. These eight

want to go back the hearth and kitchen but to a more diverse pool of pilots and aircrew. cases use measurement data from the
wanted to continue to pilot. The airlines During a war with a near-peer, techno- Centres for Disease Control and represent

went beyond the stewardesses and were logically advanced nation like China, the US a range of body types including individuals

the first to employ some of them as pilots military will have to contend with a well- who are short in stature, have short limbs

in the late nineteen seventies. trained, highly educated force that might or have a long torso.
Now, with flying becoming ever more outnumber its own, he said. By fielding AFLCMC’s Airman’s Accommodations

popular women are catching up and start weapon systems that can only be used by Laboratory will also run a three-year study
challenging male pilot dominance. a smaller portion of the US population, the that will develop separate anthropometric

The US Air Force has become a strong Air Force could be shutting out some of its standards for career enlisted aviators, who

force promoting female piloting. But first most promising potential pilots or aircrew. perform specialised jobs onboard military

they had to make the aircraft more female “The human factor is a delineator and aircraft including flight engineers, flight

body friendly. Now to get more female it likely will be against an adversary like Chi- attendants and loadmasters. Currently,

pilots, the USAF is changing the way it na, where I believe we will have a greater career enlisted aviators also must meet the

designs its aircraft. propensity to trust the operator in the seat, 1967 anthropometric standards.
For all of the modern advances of the to delegate more, to empower more and

new jet, only 9 percent of women in the take greater risk in that delegation,” Roper ‘A HIDDEN BARRIER’
Air Force currently meet the body-size said in an exclusive interview. The legacy design parametres - which stem
standards for piloting the legacy F-15 and “All well and good when you’re a coun- from a 1967 survey of male pilots and

possibly also the new EX variant, poten- try that’s going to face a country with a measure everything from a pilot’s standing

tially blocking highly qualified pilots from population that’s four times your own by height, eye height while sitting, and

flying a platform that will be in operation the end of this decade,” he said. “But if we reach - have effectively barred 44 percent

World Airnews | January 2021
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