Why we enter planes on the left side...
 

Why do we enter aircraft on the left side? Because of the calvary! Huh? Read on...

Most men are right handed and soldiers carried their swords on the left side and mounted their horses from the left, so the sword wouldn't get in the way.

If you look at any old biplane from World War I, you can see that pilots mounted their planes the same way, from the left side. Many of the planes even have stirrups for the pilots to climb. Since the late 1940's, military aircraft have their stair steps on the left and commercial jets followed suit.

And so you get on your next flight the way you do because the calvary used to wear swords!

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I thought it was because that's where the door is. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif
Actually, that's very interesting.

Maybe it's a tradition that goes back to when ships had a "Port" and "Starboard" sides, the "Port" side being the left.

MileageAddict, that reminded me of the story about why the Space Shuttle rocket boosters are the size they are, but I don't have a link...

Sorry, this doesn't answer your question Dave, but CO FF asked....
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum...ML/000365.html

As a kid when you drew airplane pictures...which way was the plane flying ?

Usually it's right to left on the paper....so you see the profile of the aircraft from the left...thus it's the side where you also draw your doors.

If you make it to the big time as a designer....this train of though just carries thru.

[This message has been edited by Carioca Canuck (edited 12-07-2000).]

Since the galley and lower cargo doors are always on the right hand side it makes sense to board passengers from the left door.

I have laid awake at nights wondering why the Brits aircraft dont have their "entrance/exit doors" on the right side (ie starboard), or their capt-pilots sit on the starboard side with the first officer on the port side. I understand the highway bit.....maybe.

MisterNice

Tango,

My guess is the chicken came before that egg. (Entry on the left probably prompted galley entry on the right, if the first post is right - unless something has been left out.)

Neat post.

-KP

The story that I remember is that the shuttle rocket boosters were transported by train to Cape Canaveral from somewhere in the west. The width of the boosters was limited by the width of the narrowest train tunnels that it had to pass through.

And why are train tracks that width? Because they follows the grooves in the old roads. Why are the roads that width? Because that's the width of the wheels of a Roman chariot. Why the width of the wheels of a Roman chariot? Because that's the width of two horses. So the Space Shuttle boosters got their design requirements from two horses rear-ends. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Ships (i.e. boats) still have a Port and Starboard side.

MisterNice-
Seems like great minds think alike. I too have often wondered about the seating of captains and first officers on British aircraft, but I guess it must be standardized
because of control panels on all aircraft.
Gotta ask our neighbor, who was a British
pilot for many years.

bj-21.

It's also possible that left-side entry for big planes became standardized because of the demands of airports with jetways. The first airport to install jetways perhaps decided to have pax enter on the left so that the gate areas would have jetway-plane-jetway-plane and so forth. Otherwise a left-jetway net to a right-jetway might not leave enough room in between for two planes to fit at the same time. Once adopted that could have become the standard -- certainly it's fixed by the design of the jetway itself.

Actually entering airplanes on the port side has been around long before jet-ways. Witness some nice old black-n-white news reels, the History Channel when WWI airplane stuff is on, the wonderful Casablanca movie (I think they did port) on late night TV to verify etc.

My take is it comes from the common practice of getting on a horse (ie the port side). As a child I tried once to do it from the starboard side and was not very successful.

And why are the very nice-n-proper Brits being "convential" (for a change).