An anthropometric analysis of Korean male helicopter pilots for helicopter cockpit design

Abstract

This study measured 21 anthropometric dimensions (ADs) of 94 Korean male helicopter pilots in their 20s to 40s and compared them with corresponding measurements of Korean male civilians and the US Army male personnel. The ADs and the sample size of the anthropometric survey were determined by a four-step process: (1) selection of ADs related to helicopter cockpit design, (2) evaluation of the importance of each AD, (3) calculation of required sample sizes for selected precision levels and (4) determination of an appropriate sample size by considering both the AD importance evaluation results and the sample size requirements. The anthropometric comparison reveals that the Korean helicopter pilots are larger (ratio of means = 1.01–1.08) and less dispersed (ratio of standard deviations = 0.71–0.93) than the Korean male civilians and that they are shorter in stature (0.99), have shorter upper limbs (0.89–0.96) and lower limbs (0.93–0.97), but are taller on sitting height, sitting eye height and acromial height (1.01–1.03), and less dispersed (0.68–0.97) than the US Army personnel.

Practitioner summary: The anthropometric characteristics of Korean male helicopter pilots were compared with those of Korean male civilians and US Army male personnel. The sample size determination process and the anthropometric comparison results presented in this study are useful to design an anthropometric survey and a helicopter cockpit layout, respectively.

Keywords:

• anthropometric measurement
• Korean male helicopter pilots
• helicopter cockpit design
• sample size determination

Acknowledgements

This study was jointly supported by KHP grant funded by Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) and Korea Science and Engineering Foundation (KOSEF) grant funded by the Korea government (MOST) (R01-2007-000-20754-0). The authors appreciate the assistance of Jeeeun Park for anthropometric measurement.

Notes

^1. [email protected].

^2. [email protected].

^3. [email protected].

^4. [email protected].

^5. [email protected].

^6. [email protected].

^7. [email protected].

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Wonsup Lee

1 1. [email protected].

Kihyo Jung

2 2. [email protected].

Jeongrim Jeong

3 3. [email protected].

Jangwoon Park

4 4. [email protected].

Jayoung Cho

5 5. [email protected].

Heeeun Kim

6 6. [email protected].

Seikwon Park

7 7. [email protected].