Even the Wright brothers plane had a couple of dials near their seat in the plane. If nothing else, they at least had to know how much fuel they had in the fuel tanks.

Without the presence of a working dial or two, as a pilot, you wouldn’t have the foggiest idea on what was happening in the engine compartment – let alone know where they were going. Today, thanks to aircraft engine monitors, the pilot is often aware of a major life-threatening aircraft engine malfunction before it even happens.

Are the cylinders over-heating? Is there a fuel line block? Is the magneto malfunctioning causing the voltage to fluctuate or drop? And so on and so forth ... Read more »