A
cockpit or
flight deck is the
area, usually near the front of an
aircraft, from which a pilot controls the aircraft.
Most modern cockpits are enclosed, except on some small aircraft,
and cockpits on large
airliners are also
physically separated from the cabin.
It is a place where from which an aircraft is controlled on the
ground and in the air.
Cockpit as a term for the pilot's compartment in an
aircraft first appeared in 1914. From about 1935
cockpit also came to be used informally to refer to the driver's
seat of a
car, especially a high
performance one, and this is official terminology in
Formula One. The term is most likely related to
the
sailing term for the
coxswain's station in a
Royal
Navy ship, and later the location of the ship's rudder
controls.

Swiss HB-IZX Saab 2000 cockpit
The cockpit of an aircraft contains
flight instruments on an instrument
panel, and the controls which enable the pilot to fly the aircraft.
In most airliners, a door separates the cockpit from the passenger
compartment. After the
September 11, 2001 terrorist
attacks, all major
airlines fortified
the cockpit against access by
hijackers.
On an airliner, the cockpit is usually referred to as the flight
deck. This term derives from its use by the RAF for the separate,
upper platform where the pilot and co-pilot sat in large
flying boats.
Ergonomics
The first airplane with an enclosed cabin appeared in 1913 on
Igor Sikorsky's airplane
The
Grand. However, during the 1920s there were many passenger
aircraft in which the crew were open to the air while the
passengers sat in a cabin. Military biplanes and the first
single-engined fighters and attack aircraft also had open cockpits
into the
Second World War. Early
airplanes with closed cockpits were the 1924
Fokker tri-motor, the 1926
Ford Tri-Motor, the 1927
Lockheed Vega, the
Spirit of St. Louis, the 1931
Taylor Cub, German Junkers used as military
transports, and the passenger aircraft manufactured by the Douglas
and Boeing companies during the mid-1930s. Open-cockpit airplanes
were almost extinct by the mid-1950s, with the exception of
training planes and crop-dusters.
Cockpit windows may be equipped with a sun shield. Most cockpits
have windows which can be opened when the aircraft is on the
ground. Nearly all glass windows in large aircraft have a
Anti-reflective coating, and an
internal heating element to melt ice. Smaller aircraft may be
equipped with a transparent
aircraft
canopy.
In most cockpits the pilot's control column or
joystick is located centrally (
centre stick), although in some military fast
jets and in some commercial airliners the pilot uses a
side-stick (usually located on the outboard side
and/or at the left).
The layout of the cockpit, especially in the military fast jet, has
undergone standardisation, both within and between aircraft
different manufacturers and even different nations. One of the most
important developments was the “Basic Six” pattern, later the
“Basic T”, developed from 1937 onwards by the
Royal Air Force, designed to optimise pilot
instrument scanning.
Ergonomics and human factors concerns are important in the design
of modern cockpits. The layout and function of cockpit displays
controls are designed to increase pilot
situation awareness without causing
information overload. In the past, many cockpits, especially in
fighter aircraft, limited the size of the pilots that could fit
into them. Now, cockpits are being designed to accommodate from the
1st
percentile female physical size and
the 99th percentile male size.
In the design of the cockpit in a military fast jet, the
traditional “knobs and dials“ associated with the cockpit are
mainly absent. Instrument panels are now almost wholly replaced by
electronic displays which are themselves often re-configurable to
save space. While some hard-wired dedicated switches must still be
used for reasons of integrity and safety, many traditional controls
are replaced by multi-function re-configurable controls or
so-called “soft keys”. Controls are incorporated onto the stick and
throttle to enable the pilot to maintain a head-up and eyes-out
position – the so-called Hands On Throttle And Stick or
HOTAS concept,. These controls may be then further
augmented by new control media such as head pointing with a Helmet
Mounted Sighting System or Direct Voice Input (
DVI). New advances in auditory displays
even allow for
Direct Voice
Output of aircraft status information and for the spatial
localisation of warning sounds for improved monitoring of aircraft
systems. A central concept in the design of the cockpit is the
Design Eye Position or
"DEP".
The layout of control panels in modern airliners has become largely
unified across the industry. The majority of the systems-related
controls (such as electrical, fuel, hydraulics and pressurization)
for example, are usually located in the ceiling on an overhead
panel. Radios are generally placed on a panel between the pilot's
seats known as the pedestal. Automatic flight controls such as the
autopilot are usually placed just below
the windscreen and above the main instrument panel on the
glareshield.
Flight instruments
In the modern electronic cockpit, the flight instruments usually
regarded as essential are MCP, PFD, ND, EICAS, FMS/CDU and back-up
instruments.
MCP
A Mode Control Panel, usually a long narrow panel located centrally
in front of the pilot, may be used to control Heading(HDG),
Speed(SPD), Altitude(ALT), Vertical Speed(V/S), Vertical
Navigation(VNAV) and Lateral Navigation(LNAV). It may also be used
to engage or disengage both the autopilot and the autothrottle. The
panel as an area is usually referred to as the "glareshield panel".
MCP is a Boeing designation (that has been informally adopted as a
generic name for the unit/panel) for a unit that allows for the
selection and parameter setting of the different Autoflight
functions, the same unit on an Airbus aircraft is referred to as
the FCU (Flight Control unit).
PFD
The
Primary Flight Display
will usually be located in a prominent position, either centrally
or on either side of the cockpit. It will show the current pressure
setting for the altimeter (local or standard), target speed and
current speed, target altitude and current altitude, vertical speed
and the condition of the Instrument Landing System (ILS) (if
engaged). It may be pilot selectable to swap with the ND.
ND
A Navigation Display, which may be adjacent to the PFD, shows the
current route and information on the next waypoint, current wind
speed and wind direction. It may be pilot selectable to swap with
the PFD.
EICAS/ECAM
The Engine Indication and Crew Alerting System (for Boeing) or
Electronic Centralized Aircraft Monitor (for Airbus) will allow the
pilot to monitor the following information: values for N1, N2 and
N3, fuel temperature, fuel flow, the electrical system, cockpit or
cabin temperature and pressure, control surfaces and so on. The
pilot may select display of information by means of button
press.
FMS
The Flight Management System/Control Unit may be used by the pilot
to enter and check for the following information: Flight Plan,
Speed Control, Navigation Control, and so on.
Back-up instruments
In a less prominent part of the cockpit, in case of failure of the
other instruments, there will be a set of back-up instruments,
showing basic flight information such as Speed, Altitude, Heading,
and aircraft attitude.
Aerospace industry technologies
In the
U.S. the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA
) have
researched the ergonomic aspects of cockpit design and have
conducted investigations of airline industry accidents.
Cockpit design disciplines include
Cognitive Science,
Neuroscience,
Human Computer Interaction,
Human Factors Engineering,
Anthropometry and
Ergonomics.
Aircraft designs have adopted the fully digital “glass cockpit.” In
such designs, instruments and gauges, including navigational map
displays, use a user interface markup language known as
ARINC 661. This standard defines the interface
between an independent cockpit display system, generally produced
by a single manufacturer, and the user applications which need to
be supported by it, by means of displays and controls, often made
by different manufacturers. The separation between the overall
display system, and the applications driving it, allows for
considerable specialization and independence.
See also
References
- “The Aircraft Cockpit – from stick-and-string to
fly-by-wire, by L.F.E. Coombes,
1990, Patrick Stephens Limited, Wellingborough.”
- “Fighting Cockpits: 1914 – 2000, by L.F.E. Coombes, 1999, Airlife Publishing Limited,
Shrewsbury.”
- “Control In The Sky: The Evolution and History of
The Aircraft Cockpit, by L.F.E. Coombes, 2005, Pen and Sword Books Limited,
Barnsley.”
External links