The English Electric Dalgety, the 'Just in case' project. - DONE!

[Old Wombat]

It's not just the actual height that limits you these days. I got to sit in the front seat of a 617 Sqdn. Tornado GR4 once, and even wearing my normal clothes and with the seat as far back as it would go, my knees were UNDER the edge of the panel! If I'd had to eject I'd have lost both lower legs I reckon! 

That's the main reason the height limits exist, Kit, so that pilots don't lose their legs & bleed to death if they have to eject.

I believe that even within the limits there are other considerations regarding body & leg length ratios but that 5' 10"-ish height is the maximum at which those variables can (normally) result in a person capable of being a pilot.

[PR19_Kit]

But why not just make the cockpits larger? Just an inch or two would do it, and it wouldn't cost THAT much more I'd have thought.

[The Rat]

Winkle reckoned that the reason he wasn't killed when the Swallow started to oscillate was due to his height, it lessened the chance of a broken neck.

[su27rules]