Joystick

Lore & Background

The joystick originated as a control for aircraft ailerons and elevators, first known on Louis Bleriot's Bleriot VIII aircraft of 1908, used with a foot-operated rudder bar for yaw control. The name 'joystick' is thought to originate with early 20th century French pilot Robert Esnault-Pelterie, though competing claims exist for fellow pilots Robert Loraine, James Henry Joyce, and A. E. George. Loraine is cited by the Oxford English Dictionary for using the term in his diary in 1909 when he went to Pau to learn to fly at Bleriot's school. George was a pioneer aviator who with his colleague Jobling built and flew a biplane at Newcastle in England in 1910; their aircraft control column is in the collection of the Discovery Museum in Newcastle upon Tyne. The coining of the term may actually be credited to Loraine, as his is the earliest known usage, although he most certainly did not invent the device.

The electrical two-axis joystick was invented by C. B. Mirick at the United States Naval Research Laboratory and patented in 1926. The Germans developed an electrical two-axis joystick around 1944, used as part of the Funkgerät FuG 203 Kehl radio control transmitter system in certain German bomber aircraft to guide the Henschel Hs 293 missile and Fritz-X munition. This joystick had on-off switches rather than analogue sensors. A comparable joystick unit was used for the American Azon steerable munition, strictly to laterally steer in the yaw axis only. The German invention was picked up by a team at the Heeresversuchsanstalt in Peenemünde developing the Wasserfall missile. In the 1960s, joysticks became widespread in radio-controlled model aircraft systems such as the Kwik Fly produced by Phill Kraft (1964). NASA used joysticks as control devices as part of the Apollo missions; for example, the lunar lander test models were controlled with a joystick.

Reader's Guide

The joystick's significance spans aviation, gaming, and industrial control. In aviation, it originated as a control for ailerons and elevators on early aircraft and later saw renewed use in modern airliners such as all Airbus aircraft developed from the 1980s, where the side-stick replaced the traditional yoke, saving weight, improving movement and visibility in the cockpit, and potentially being safer in an accident. In electronic games, the earliest known joystick with a fire button appeared in Sega's 1969 arcade game Missile, which used a two-way joystick to shoot and steer a missile. Taito introduced a four-way joystick in Astro Race (1973) and dual-stick controls in Western Gun (1975). The Atari CX40 joystick, developed for the 1977 Atari Video Computer System, became a de facto standard digital joystick specification. Joysticks were commonly used in first and second generation game consoles but gave way to the game pad with the Nintendo Entertainment System and Master System during the mid-1980s, though arcade-style joysticks remained popular after-market add-ons. A variation, the rotary joystick, was introduced by SNK in TNK III (1985) and popularized by Ikari Warriors (1986), allowing both eight-directional movement and 360-degree gun direction. Another variation, the positional gun, works as an analog joystick mounted in a fixed location to record aiming position, used in arcade gun games. The joystick's legacy is its adaptability as an input device for aircraft, video games, cranes, trucks, underwater unmanned vehicles, wheelchairs, surveillance cameras, and zero turning radius lawn mowers.

Did You Know?

• The name 'joystick' may originate with French pilot Robert Esnault-Pelterie, but the earliest known usage is in Robert Loraine's 1909 diary.
• The first electrical two-axis joystick was patented in 1926 by C. B. Mirick at the United States Naval Research Laboratory.
• The Atari CX40 joystick, released in 1977, set the de facto standard for digital joystick ports.
• A rotary joystick, introduced by SNK in 1985, allows both directional movement and rotation of the stick.