Aircraft Cockpit

Cockpit

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Jump to: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

This article is about the flight deck of an aircraft. For other uses, see [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].

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


[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] cockpit. Most Airbus cockpits are computerised [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] featuring [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] technology. The [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] has been replaced with an electronic sidestick.



[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Swiss HB-IZX Saab 2000 cockpit



[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] DR400/500



[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

1936 [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] cockpit



The cockpit of an aircraft contains [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
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 [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], all major [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] fortified the cockpit against access by [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].
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 [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].


Ergonomics

The first airplane with an enclosed cabin appeared in 1913 on [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]'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 [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]. Early airplanes with closed cockpits were the 1924 [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], the 1926 [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], the 1927 [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], the 1931 [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.],
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 theexception of training planes and crop-dusters.


[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

A pilot can be seen on the flight deck of this [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] as it [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] to the take off point at [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].


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 [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], and an internal heating element to melt ice. Smaller aircraft may be equipped with a transparent [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].
In most cockpits the pilot's control column or [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] is located centrally ([You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]), although in some military fast jets and in some commercial airliners the pilot uses a [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] (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 [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], designed to optimise pilot [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] 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 [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
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 [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] 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 [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
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 ([You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]). New advances in auditory displays even allow for [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
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 [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] 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 [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] are usually placed just below the windscreen and above the main instrument panel on the glareshield.


Flight instruments

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] and [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] airmen work inside the cockpit of an IAF [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].



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 [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.],
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 [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
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 speedand wind direction. It may be pilot selectable to swap with the PFD.



[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] (1960s) The [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] featured an analogue cockpit, with old-style instruments.




[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

A later analogue cockpit (1970s) of a [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] airliner.


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