Did Wolfgang Langewiesche ever change his mind about rudder pedals? I get the feeling that if aviation was a religion and had a holy book, that book would be Stick and Rudder.  Mostly because it's often spoken of with great authority by people who have never read it.

Well, I'm reading it right now.  And let me tell you, Wolfgang has got some opinions.  Here's one of them, from Chapter 11.


  The important thing to understand about the rudder pedals is that they are unnecessary; like your wisdom teeth, they serve no very good purpose but can cause much trouble.  The airplane needs no rudder pedals.  It should have no rudder pedals.  In all probability it will have no rudder pedals 10 years hence.


I have to give him credit: he put his money where his mouth was.



However, the fact that it's now 2014 and rudder pedals are still very much in vogue makes me wonder:  Did Wolfgang Langewiesche ever change his mind about rudder pedals, or did he go to his grave defiant to the end?
NO

There is no written record that I have found in researching this question that Langweische ever 'recanted' his beliefs. I cannot source or cite this negative however. I don't actually like this question, since only an answer that he did recant can be sourceable. Any cites showing him supporting his own written beliefs could be disputed by saying "but what about later in life?" This means that a negative answer can only be opinion.

It's not like he left in his LW&amp;T the statement that everything he had written previously was a lie.