Most people know about a cockpit these days — it’s an area inside an aircraft from where the pilot(s) control the plane, but have you ever wondered where the moniker comes from?
Not many people know, and it wasn’t a term brought up by an aviation authority.
The term came to aircraft and the aviation industry from someplace else, and nobody is completely certain where from.
There are, however, several theories that explain how the flight deck area became a cockpit.
Some of these theories seem more promising than others and are likely to hold the word’s origin.
The origin of word cockpit
Airplanes only got a ‘cockpit’ in the early 1900s, but the term came long before that.
Some say it originated in the 16th century, while others say the word was slang used by boat travelers.
So, what was a cockpit in the 16th century?
A connection to the rooster battles
Some texts from the old eras reveal that cockpits were literal pits used for rooster battles, and the term carried on to mean an enclosed area for battles.
Considering this case, pilots in World War I might have used the same analogy to call their enclosed seats a cockpit.
Although this theory makes some sense, so do the others.
Another hypothesis, which also consists of rooster battles, says that a club in London called ‘The Cockpit’ was used by the then-King, among other buildings, to set up a temporary control base.
Moreover, the said club hosted the same rooster fights, and the word transitioned from being a place of battle to a control center.
You can now likely see where this goes next.
An aircraft’s control center came to be synonymous with the control center used by the King, so its meaning carried over to airplanes.
However, yet another theory outwits the above ones, and for the better.
The naval and aviation industries share common roots
Before airplanes were a thing, getting around large distances was only possible via boats.
Boats used to have a coxswain — called a cockswain back then — a person in charge of its maintenance.
Nautical dictionaries mention that this person’s job transformed into controlling the boat itself, assuming a modern-day captain’s duties.
The place from where a coxswain controlled a boat came to be known as a cockpit not long after.
Since several aviation terms were derived from nautical and naval traditions, the moniker was also adopted in aviation.
That’s certainly a lot of history for one word, but the true meaning of even a common term often blurs with time.
The boat theory seems like the most appropriate, and that’s what many aviation icons will tell you.
However, nobody is completely sure about it, so it’s up to you to decide.
What does a cockpit mean today?
Regardless of where the term originated, a modern cockpit is entirely different from the very first one.
You see — the first manned aircraft, called the Wright Flyer, didn’t have a cockpit when it first flew in 1903.
Neither did other airplanes until almost a decade later.
As a matter of fact, aviation companies and public figures only started using the term around 1915.
The first batch of aircraft didn’t exactly have a dedicated area for a pilot.
Instead, there was just a seat attached to a yoke, and pilots usually just ‘winged it.’
When more advanced aircraft launched a decade later, they featured an isolated area with flight controls.
These came around to be called cockpits, and the rest is history.
As of today, even supercars and all sizes of aircraft feature a cockpit-like driver’s seat.
Some cars even aim to give its driver a true cockpit experience, but that’s certainly an exaggeration.
However, that doesn’t mean that all airplanes have the same cockpits.
When companies first introduced large passenger planes like the Airbus A380 to the world, the word’s meaning changed.
The moniker usually means a seat in an enclosed area for a pilot with all sorts of controls and buttons.
However, you get more real estate in a larger plane, so Boeing started calling it a flight deck.
When someone refers to a flight deck, it also means a cockpit.
So here’s the word ‘cockpit’ for you – a simple word with a long, uncertain history behind it.
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