Aircraft Cockpits

This page represents a collection of cockpit photos from a variety of public domain and government sources and archives. If anything, this page provides a most unique look into what most of the general public never get to see - the cockpits of some of the most famous, expensive, powerful aircraft in military and civilian history. It becomes an interesting exercise in seeing how the cockpit of the aircraft has evolved from simple gauges and wooden furniture to highly-technical liquid crystal displays and the like.

Many sources state the origin for the word "cockpit" as coming comes from the sport of cockfighting, more precisely in reference to the pit that the two animals battle in. In terms of its relation to the aircraft, however, a proper association is English in origin for the British Navy began construction of specialized rooms below the waterline about their ships sometime in the 1700s. These areas were small, cramped spaces usually reserved for the wounded during and after battles or for junior officers during peacetime sailing. The term cockpit was actually used to describe this space.

As time wore on, the design and use of this compartment changed but the word cockpit did not - leading to its availability in our modern times. Cockpit was first associated with aircraft in 1914 during World War 1 - the war was the beginning of aerial combat as we know it today. The term was used in the same way - to describe a cramped space - though in this case it became the small area that the pilot sat in to operate the aircraft. Other words soon grew into aviation vocabulary from the resulting grand air war such as "dogfighting" and "ace" but cockpit has maintained seniority over them all.

Today, "cockpit" is still used to refer to the main operating compartment of any aircraft and still applies to naval vessels and has since been used to describe the main seating area of single-seat vehicles such as high-performance race cars.