![]() The layout of control panels in modern airliners has nearly got standardised. Advances in auditory displays allow for Direct Voice Output of aircraft status information and for the spatial localisation of warning sounds for improved monitoring of aircraft systems. These controls are further augmented by Helmet Mounted Sighting System or Direct voice input (DVI). Controls are incorporated onto the stick and throttle to enable the pilot to maintain a head-up and eyes-out position, and are called “Hands on Throttle and Stick” or HOTAS. While some hard-wired dedicated switches are still there for safety, but most traditional controls are replaced by multi-function re-configurable controls or “soft keys”. Instrument panels are now almost wholly replaced by electronic displays, which are themselves often re-configurable to save space. The modern cockpits do not anymore have those traditional “knobs and dials”. An important development was the “Basic Six” pattern, later the “Basic T”, developed from 1937 onwards by the Royal Air Force, designed to optimise pilot instrument scanning. The layout of the cockpit, especially in the military fast jet, has undergone standardisation, both within and between aircraft, manufacturers and even nations. Now, cockpits are being designed to accommodate from the 1st percentile female physical size to the 99th percentile male size. In the past, many cockpits, especially in fighter aircraft, limited the size of the pilots that could fit into them. The layout and function of cockpit displays controls are designed to increase pilot situation awareness without causing information overload. Image Source: Įrgonomics and Human Factors concerns are important in the design of modern cockpits. In some commercial airliners (i.e.: Airbus-which features the glass cockpit concept) both pilots use a side-stick located on the outboard side, so Captain’s side-stick on the left and First-officer’s seat on the right.į-16 Viper Cockpit layout. In most cockpits the pilot’s control column or joystick is located centrally (centre stick), although in some military fast jets the side-stick is located on the right hand side. The tradition has been maintained to this day, with the co-pilot on the right hand side. The captain or pilot in command sits in the left seat, so that they can operate the throttles and other pedestal instruments with their right hand. Smaller aircraft were equipped with a transparent aircraft canopy.Įxcept for some helicopters, the “right seat” in the cockpit of an aircraft is the seat used by the co-pilot. Nearly all glass windows in large aircraft have an anti-reflective coating, and an internal heating element to melt ice. ![]() Most cockpits have windows that can be opened when the aircraft is on the ground. Cockpit windows in some cases were being equipped with a sun shields. Open-cockpit airplanes were almost extinct by the mid-1950s, with the exception of training planes, crop-dusters and homebuilt aircraft designs. Prior to Perspex becoming available in 1933, windows were either safety glass, which was heavy, or cellulose nitrate (i.e.: guncotton), which yellowed quickly and was extremely flammable. The largest impediment to having closed cabins was the material used to make the windows. The same term later came to designate the place from which a sailing vessel is steered, because it is also located in the rear, and is often in a well or “pit”.į-22 Canopy. Thus by the 18th century, “cockpit” had come to designate an area in the rear lower deck of a warship where the wounded were taken. The word “cockswain” in turn derives from the old English terms for “boat-servant” ( coque is the French word for “shell” and swain was old English for boy or servant). The midshipmen and master’s mates were later berthed in the cockpit, and it served as the action station for the ship’s surgeon and his mates during battle. The cockswain being the pilot of a smaller “boat” that could be dispatched from the ship to board another ship or to bring people ashore. It referred to an area in the rear of a ship where the cockswain’s station was located. The word cockpit seems to have been used as a nautical term in the 17th century, without reference to cock fighting. The Name – Anything to do with Cock-Fighting
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