The first Mercury spacecraft was already close to delivery at that time. When we saw it we were appalled at the instrument panel layout: there was no logical grouping of displays, gauges and switches. Some toggle switches were up-and-down, some left-and-right. The capsule had two small portholes as windows. Believe it or not, one was near the pilot's right ankle and the other was partially visible over his left shoulder. Directly in front, in his lap, was the face of a huge, very heavy optical telescope!

I was invited to attend and participate in a design review at the McDonnell plant in St. Louis that the astronauts requested. Their first item - to put a fighter pilot's windscreen directly In front and scrap the portholes. The optical telescope was gone after the first flight.

The instructor's console that appears in the photo has all of its displays and controls arranged in a u-shape to reflect the layout in the capsule of displays and controls. I asked for this because it made it easy and useful to have an astronaut take a turn as instructor because they worked in pairs to refine the steps in a procedure which had been presented in the Capsule Flight Operations Manual.

At approximately 90 minutes per orbit, simulation of a 3-orbit flight was going to be uncomfortable if in the simulated launch position for the whole time, so I asked for the ability for us to tilt the trainer's capsule during the simulated entry into orbit a few minutes after launch.