The effects of multiple anthropometric constraints on the accommodation of personnel in operational naval aircraft

Abstract

All Navy aircraft are required to accommodate, anthropometrically , ninety percent of the user population. Some designs have been criticized for their low accommodations but those accommodations have never been quantified. The purpose of this thesis was to quantify the accommodation, by each type of operational Naval aircraft, of populations of Naval aviation personnel of 1964, 1969, and 1975. The Computerized Accommodation Percentage Evaluation (CAPE) model was used to generate data points since only summary statistics were available for two of the populations. Each subject of every population was checked against the requirements of the design specification, and against the limitations of each aircraft. All aircraft were found to accommodate more than ninety percent of the 1975 population. Time related changes in the populations were noted and unexplained inconsistencies in the data were discovered. Possible sources of error were discussed and potential solutions proposed.