Alphonse Chapanis, a Founder of Ergonomics, Dies at 85 By STUART
LAVIETES Published: October 15, 2002 Alphonse Chapanis, a
founder of ergonomics, a branch of engineering that considers
product and workplace design from the physical point of view of
the actual user, died on Oct. 4 in Baltimore. He was 85. Dr.
Chapanis, a Johns Hopkins University professor who received a
Ph.D. in psychology from Yale University in 1943, began his
career in the Army, where he was assigned to investigate a
string of mysterious runway crashes of B-17 bombers. He
discovered that the accidents were the result of poor cockpit
design: the bomber's instrument panel had identical side-by-side
toggles, one to control the flaps and the other to operate the
landing gear. Weary pilots sometimes flipped the wrong toggle
during landing, retracting the wheels and causing a crash. Later
in the war, he studied the effects of high altitude on
psychology and physiology. Dr. Chapanis joined the faculty of
Johns Hopkins in 1946. Three years later, h