Cockpit facts for kids

VC-10 (1960s) The Vickers VC10 airliner featured an analog cockpit, with old-style instruments.

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. The cockpit of an aircraft contains flight instruments on an instrument panel, and the controls that enable the pilot to fly the aircraft. In most airliners, a door separates the cockpit from the aircraft cabin. After the September 11, 2001 attacks, all major airlines fortified their cockpits against access by hijackers.

Cockpit as a term for the pilot's space 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 word cockpit was originally a sailing term for the coxswain's station in a Royal Navy ship.

Images for kids

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  Cockpit of an Antonov An-124

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  Cockpit of an A380. Most Airbus cockpits are glass cockpits featuring fly-by-wire technology.

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  Swiss HB-IZX Saab 2000 during flight

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  Robin DR400

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  1936 de Havilland Hornet Moth

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  Cockpit of Cessna 182D Skylane

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  View of a Cockpit seen from outside (Boeing 747-400)

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  USAF and IAF airmen work inside the cockpit of an IAF Ilyushin Il-76.

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  A later analogue cockpit (1970s) of a Hawker Siddeley Trident airliner

See also

In Spanish: Cabina de vuelo para niños