In this review of the evolution of displays and controls in military and civil fixed-wing aircraft, the author traces the development of flight instruments, largely in this country, from their rudimentary beginning before the first World War to the present high degree of automation and suggests certain pitfalls from the pilot's point of view in high-technology solutions.

The Wright Brothers' aeroplane flew with only a stopwatch, a tachometer to measure engine speed, and an anemometer, all for measuring performance; the pilot had no instrumentation to help him fly the aircraft. There was little change up to the beginning of the first world war in 1914. The cockpit hardly existed as such: controls varied in design; some were levers, and often there was a wheel which, in the early days, controlled wing warping to change the lift of each wing to allow the aircraft to bank.