Aircraft Cockpit Pictures
A look inside these mythical machines.

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

The original term 'cockpit' is actually derived from the literal cock-fighting pits (a sunken ring-like fighting area for two ill-tempered animals, usually chickens / roosters) prevalent throughout history (for sport until banned as illegal in most countries). The sunken-tub like shape that were found in the original aircraft were said to be reminiscent of these fighting arenas, thus the name stuck.