Even in Britain, in almost all engineering contexts, SI units would be assumed. Your point about Americans assuming imperial units is precisely wwhy it's so dangerous that metrification hasn't happened there.
If the US went metric, then there would no longer be any need to assume anything but metric anywhere, and it would be safer for it.
Yes, there's a long standing tradition, but it only takes a couple of generations to completely change, and that would likely be hastened by being the last large country to do so and having a large cultural footprint on the rest of the world.
If the US did convert to metric, in 3 or 4 generations the whole world would be metric, and there wouldn't be any "wrong assumptions", and it is making bad assumptions that lead to preventable failures.
If China can manage to go metric, the US can too.
This is true in the United States as well, but fueling a commercial airplane is not an academic, scientific, or even an engineering exercise. It is as routine and pedestrian as refueling a bus.
> Your point about Americans assuming imperial units is precisely wwhy it's so dangerous that metrification hasn't happened there.
Or maybe it's an argument for why "metrification" is itself dangerous. The problem is the transition, not being on either side of the fence. It seems to me that the only safe mode of transition is first to dual readout, and only then to SI-exclusive.
Don't get me wrong, I like SI units, I use them every day, and I don't long to spend any time multiplying and dividing by irregular fractions; I just don't like the dismissive "shoulda been metric" rhetoric that floats around everywhere; as though you can just stop selling letter paper and force everyone to use A-series compatible envelopes, and convert the clean (if baroque) markings on the paper products to bizarre decimal fractions of a g/m² without any empathy for the old guard.
Some people care about how Britain still drives on the wrong side of the road, but that doesn't mean they should berate you every time a drunk roadtripping Frenchman turns out into oncoming traffic.
> as though you can just stop selling letter paper and force everyone to use A-series compatible envelopes, and convert the clean (if baroque) markings on the paper products to bizarre decimal fractions of a g/m² without any empathy for the old guard.
The first part was done in Britain in the 1950s, but with the weights rounded to convenient metric numbers.
Refuelled in litres, but with efficiency measured in miles per gallon. It's kind of a mess.
All three British bus manufactures give all measurements except speed in metric, although none give an actual fuel consumption. (Just "20% better" etc.)
[1], as the first reference I can find, uses both l/100km and mpg.
[1] https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/fuel_consumption_of_p...
That might be a tiny bit optimistic. I'm in my mid 50s, and UK schooling taught me nothing but metric. I vaguely remember some sort of half-hearted campaign and leaflets about it, I think that was before we joined the EU. In 2019, and we are still not there yet.
I'm not sure the last popular holdouts are ever likely to change at this point.
I'm surprised, but thankful, that the Brexit lunacy hasn't (yet) brought calls to return to Imperial and £sd. :)
Unfortunately:
Return of pounds and ounces? Britain might allow firms to use imperial measures after Brexit https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/02/17/return-pounds-ou...
EXCLUSIVE: Experts Slam "Bonkers" Proposal To Re-Introduce Imperial Measurements After Brexit, In Letters To Government http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2017/04/exclusive-experts-slam-bonk...
Now that we are to be a sovereign nation again, we must bring back imperial units https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/04/01/now-sovereign-na...
The french played a very dominant role as well.
As far as I've known, that largely involved a tremendous number of English channel crossings, but I will look more into that so I don't stay ignorant; thanks. ;- )
Here are a few places for you to begin your research:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aviation_in_the_pioneer_era
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grande_Semaine_d%27Aviation_de...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Blériot
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soci%C3%A9t%C3%A9_pour_l%27avi...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A%C3%A9ro-Club_de_France
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornu_helicopter
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27A%C3%A9rophile
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Arm%C3%A9e_de_l...
Aside: How many American-made components do you see with big bold French labels on them? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Fdr_sidefront.jpg
Aviation: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/aviation
Aéroplane: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/aeroplane
Hélicoptère: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/helicopter
Keep in mind that the U.S. is not the only place where measures are mixed. If anything, British people end up using more measures than Americans. Here in Canada, we have a lot of things read out in both, because of the immense sticking power of customary measures.
U.S. organizations are actively encouraged and (for the most part) fully allowed to adopt SI measures, but it's not like switching road sides, where everything makes sense after you hear "drive on the right now".
Keep in mind that powered flight was basically entirely developed by Americans and pre-SI Brits, and already had more than fifty years of history by the time either pioneering country adopted SI in any significant way. It should not surprise you in the slightest that an American plane expected to hear fuel mass given as weight in pounds; in fact, it should astonish you that anyone is trying to measure it in kilograms in North America.