Dark Board

Before an army pilot even starts the four engines of a Boeing Flying Fortress he has some 50 switches, gauges and gadgets to check, calls each off to his co-pilot as he goes so that nothing is missed. Before he taxies away from the line he has another score or two of check jobs to do, is thereafter kept busy, on the take-off and in the air and returning to land with a complicated set of controls.

To take some of the load off the pilot, Curtiss-Wright Corporation last week announced a new wrinkle, to be used in its big CW20 transport under construction in its St. Louis factory. When the CW20 pilot is ready to land, he will throw a switch marked "land." A series of bulbs on the instrument board will light, and as he gets his landing gear down, lowers his flaps, cranks back his stabilizer, et al., the lights will go out, one by one. By other switches, he can check his operations for takeoff, or for any other operations. When the instrument board is dark after a check, all is well.

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