Franklyn, a Sport Pilot from Virginia, writes: I figured that as you write “Questions from the Cockpit,” you’d know how the cockpit got its name. Why is the cockpit called the cockpit?
There are three competing theories to explain the use of the word “cockpit” as the name for the nerve center of an airplane. Strap in, we’ll fly through them all.
The Control Center Hypothesis
For background, you need to know that the word cockpit itself first appears in print in the 1580s, and was used to describe the arena used for cock fights (with birds), but as the Oxford English Dictionary points out, over time, the term evolved in other directions.
One of these, and bear with me through all the twists and turns, gets royally far from cock fights, and might well land in airplanes.
Here’s the tale: In 1635 a theater in London called The Cockpit was torn down to make room for buildings to serve King Charles I’s cabinet. Apparently, Londoners continued to call the new cluster of buildings “the cockpit” after the old theater, which in turn, got its name from being built on the site of an actual, Honest-to-Pete cock fighting site.
All of this led to Robert Barnhart, in his book the Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, to suggest that cockpit evolved into a synonym for control center and that this was later applied to the control centers of airplanes.
Meanwhile, on a different tangent from this same set of facts we have…
The Blood and Guts Hypothesis
In addition to being used as a synonym for control center, apparently in the 1700s, soldiers started using “cockpit” as a metaphor for the site of grisly combat, especially when the fighting was in an enclosed area.
The Word Detective website has suggested that the word cockpit was then “adopted by pilots in World War I, who applied it to the cramped operating quarters of their fighter planes.” It is, after all, a small pit where plenty of fighting takes place.
Related to this, in the 18th Century, wounded sailors were taken below decks during combat, where the ship’s surgeon and his mates would tend to them — a bloody business that led to the surgeon’s station being called the cockpit.
And it’s also on the high seas that our third contender comes from…
The Nautical Connections Hypothesis
The word cockpit had a second and completely independent evolution on the waves, one that has nothing whatsoever to do with cock fighting. I’d like you to meet a different flavor of pilot from the kind we hang around with: The coxswain.
Initially, the word cockswain is used to describe the person in charge of a small vessel. The title comes to us from “cock,” an Old English term for a small boat, and “swain,” which means servant. A cockswain is a boat servant. Over time, this title led to the steering compartment of smaller boats, where the cockswain sat, being called a cockpit.
As early aviation borrowed a host of other terms from the sea, many commentators have suggested that this is the source of cockpit as we know it.
The history vault
So how can we sort all of this out? Which of the three theories is correct?
One approach is to look at early aviation writing to try to figure out when the word cockpit first appears in print in relationship to aviation.
Is it when flight decks became complex enough to merit being considered control centers?
Is it found in the writings of the World War I aces?
Or does it come from an earlier point in time?
The earliest printed reference to cockpit in aviation that I could find came from 1909. That’s five years before World War I, and only six years after Kitty Hawk. It’s in the book “Vehicles of the Air” by Victor Lougheed.
In discussing aeroplane seating for pilots and passengers, Lougheed tells us, “So far, most of such seats have been of the most elementary construction, as is suggested in the illustrations throughout these pages. Lately, however, some of the more advanced craft are appearing with very comfortable arrangements for seating the operator, as is particularly evidenced in the boat-like cockpits provided in the Bleriot, Antoinette, and R.E.P. machines.”
It intrigues me that this very sentence, near the dawn of aviation history, directly connects our cockpit back to those of boats. But is it the origin of cockpit in aviation?
I believe that it is. 1907’s “Navigating the Air” by the Aero Club of America, makes no mention of cockpits. Of course, at that time, well prior to the trio of planes cited by Lougheed, most pilots were seated on open wings, or in chairs lashed to struts forward of the wing. We didn’t need the word cockpit earlier as there was no pit! But by 1915, cockpit is in common use in numerous books.
But was Lougheed, and his book, influential enough to brand the operator’s compartment for all time? Who was Lougheed, anyway?
The founder of the Society of Automotive Engineers, he may well have been the first aeronautical engineer in the modern sense of the word. In addition to his astonishingly comprehensive “Vehicles” book, he wrote several other highly technical books, and numerous articles, on the budding world of aviation. He designed engines, wings and propellers, and held numerous patents.
And it might interest you to know that the proper pronunciation of his Scottish last name was Lock-heed. Yep, Victor was the older brother of Allan and Malcolm Lougheed, the founders of the Lockheed Aircraft Company, who changed the spelling of the company’s name to avoid pronunciation problems.
Of course, buried in some little-known book in the dust bin of history there could well be some earlier use of the term, but until we can find it, Victor Lougheed gets my vote for the father of the cockpit.
Flight Deck or Cockpit?
After diving deep into the history of cockpit, let’s look at the future: In late May, deep in a four-page memo called “What’s New and Upcoming in Airman Testing,” the FAA blew up our time-honored cockpit.
In the middle of a bullet list summarizing the changes in its new release of the “Aviation Instructor’s Handbook,” the Feds announced: “Cockpit” has been replaced with “Flight Deck.”
The FAA is also ditching “student” in favor of “learner” in the book, and will do the same with both terms in all resources going forward. Apparently, the shift from student to learner reflects an ongoing trend in higher education— although there’s no word yet on whether the Student Pilot Certificate will be replaced with a Learner Pilot Certificate.
Sorry. That was rather snarky of me, wasn’t it?
Anyway, the decision on cockpits is a little less clear, although it appears to fall into the same broad category of trying to be sensitive to the power of language.
It’s not that I don’t appreciate the power and effect of words on people. I do. But while flight deck is a fine fit for me when it comes to the big iron, I confess I find it a bit pretentious for the light aluminum that I fly.
Will the pilot community go along with this, or like continuing to call the 14 CFRs the FARs, will we stubbornly stick to our Old English?
I honestly can’t see myself mounting the wing, lifting my leg over the high wall of my fuselage, and stepping down into my flight deck. And, while I’m not planning on renaming my column Questions from the Flight Deck anytime soon, I’d love to know how you feel about this change.
Do you like it? Or are you going to fight the flight deck like an angry rooster?
Very interesting review. Many in society have become extra sensitive to words that can convey dual meanings. Companies, sports teams and society have modified their names and public releases to be sensitive to these issues.
What was once a male dominated world has changed for the better and while I personally am not bothered by many words that are considered insensitive by others I believe we all have to change what we do and how we do it. Clearly the connotation of “cockpit” has a history unrelated to some people’s perception of it. But today, that has become a sensitive issue and we should change as society changes. Flight deck seems like the appropriate term and I shall use it going forward. While I will make mistakes, I think I, as an instructor, should be sensitive to others perception of words and actions.
Much like the “angry rooster”, for me. Having spent 25000 hours, over 30 years,sharing the cockpit with a seemingly countless number of newhire “pilots” produced by our “piloy puppy mills”, at 2 different regional airlines, I have become increasingly astounded, and frustrated, at the progressive decay of basic airmanship and pilot skill levels exhibited by newhire pilots. As per the newest FAA way, basic airmanship seems to be giving way to button pushing switchology. This development, apparently, leads to the newest cockpit “crew consist” of, “one Dog and one man (person)”.Whereby the dog’s function is to bite anyone that touches any cockpit control. And the man (person)? Their function in the new cockpit, will be, to feed the dog, and otherwise enhance the appearance and political correctness, of our newest air transports.
Let us all strive to be pilots, and develop and exercise airmanship!
I\m in complete agreement with leaving things alone.. but I\m going to go a little deeper lets take fittings for example. Male and Female that is easy are we going to have to say fitting with threads on the inside and fitting with threads on the outside? I say no male and female is so much easier.
Why why, must we continue to make unnecessary changes when identifying familiar items. Everyone, especially old pilots like myself has no problem with the name cockpit. A student pilot is a student pilot who hasn’t learned much. But alas it makes some over educated yahoo feel like he’s won the Nobel Prize by teaching us ole farts what things should be named.
Next they’ll be changing what and airplane and a helicopter should be called.
“Ladies and Gentlemen good morning from the cockpit, this is the Captain speaking.”
I had a license to fly a Cessna 172 aircraft. As far as I am concerned, the cockpit is the space in which I sit and the flight deck is the floor of the cockpit where my feet are positioned. Calling the cabin a flightdeck is ludicrous at best!
I believe it should be called
“THE COMPACT CONTROL ROOM”
from a new Private Pilot from Ohio
John Bagnola
Seems to me that trying to settle on a singular term is silly. Each one has its own flavor and connotations, and thus “fits more comfortably” in some circumstances than in others.
‘Flight Deck’ seems perfect for an airliner with a multi-person crew. ‘Cockpit’ is surely more appropriate than Flight Deck for a military fighter jet.
Both of them, though, carry a connotation of a specific internal area separate from the rest of the people space. It seems silly to use either Cockpit or Flight Deck for a Cessna 172, when the interior is so – what, ‘undifferentiated’?
Since small general aviation aircraft are laid out so similarly to passenger automobiles, where we have a ‘driver’s seat’, maybe just use ‘pilot’s seat’ and/or ‘co-pilot’s seat’ for these cases?
Point is, a larger, wider vocabulary is a good thing, and allows us to be more accurate and precise when we’re communicating, whether in explicit text or implicit subtexts. Let’s keep ’em all, and choose the best one as needed.
Tradition is falling to pc bs. GHU.
Women flyers have been around for generations. Pretty sure Amelia Earhart would wonder why some of you think women have just begun to fly.
Sailors tie knots. Pilot’s poop their decks. I sit up front where the knobs are. Happy New Years.
The FAA is wrong to replace existing terms used in aviation just because an airliner may include a flight deck. As a passenger I sit on the flight deck, otherwise I would be in the terminal. … As a pilot for 50 years, The insult of changing terms denies the historical evolution of aviation world wide. So, I remain a student of aviation And I consider these word changes frivolous.
This is another one of those, we have all the answers now let’s seek out the problem. Just another opportunity for cancel culture to take control in the cockpit as well as generations of accepted aviation jaogon. Give me a break.
If I called my cockpit “the flight deck” I would be laughed off the ramp and those laughing at me would be right!
“Pretentious for light aluminum”. I wholeheartedly agree. Fifty plus years of intimate experience in general aviation, have afforded the opportunity, for this writer to observe in real time, too many “pretenders” destroy their airplanes (some with fatal consequences). Way down in the pile of causual factors, could often be seen, that the perpetrator was “in way over his head” as a result of “pretending” that the existing experience level was adequate to meet any eventualities, whether or not, any suitable training and previous manifestation of required skill levels had ever been accomplished.
The Fed’s changes in wording is nothing more than appeasements to the self inflicted righteousness of the elite. I will always refer to the Cockpit as my Cockpit. Regardless of even the big iron I flew. And yes, the FARs are still the FARs.
Here, here,
René L Minjares
I don’t think changing “student” to “learner” is the result of liberal or correctness concerns. I do, however, think it a mistake. Emphasis on learner is good as in we should all be lifelong learners. I’ve certainly learned plenty as an instructor and am certain professors do too. However, being a student is a unique developmental period that should be properly acknowledged. Recognizing learners appreciates old dogs can learn new tricks while keeping students appreciates not all rectangles are squares. Attending to students requires extra margins and constraints. Appreciating lifelong learning helps preserve a humble sense knowing we’ll never know everything.
I agree. We are all Lifelong learners as I received my masters at age 55 and my Pilots license at age 65. Unlike James Allen, Arnold Palmers’s Pilot at age 25. Great Job James. Keep Learning !
Hi William, I think even flight DECK is related to the naval stuff, boats or so. My opinion is that the authorities are wrong to replace terms which have a long lasting history. Why not leaving “cockpit” to the general aviation and “flight deck” to the airliners? When I’m sitting in my single-seat aerobatic aircraft: shall I say flight deck or cockpit? I’m sure you got the point. Keep well!
Being that most airplanes have been piloted by men it was inevitable that it be called a cockpit,
BUT NOW that there are woman pilots and co-pilots manning the cockpit in an all women crew , they have now been known & with all respect are referred to as the “box office”. thank you
Did you make that up? Cause it is hella clever
Thanks for the great history lesson regarding the term cockpit. Very informative. As for me, I am not a fan of revisionist language for any reason other than increasing clarity. I will continue to use cockpit and student as they are both clearly understood in all aviation contexts.
So, the transgender Revolution and Feminist Revolution have finally penetrated Aviation? That sucks. I’m “sticking” with Cockpit. I might consider CockDeck, though.
I’m happy with cockpit, to whomever came up with it. And I think student pilot is fine. I’ll bet the early male pilots called it a dick stick at some point but never wrote the term down for later criticism. If you can find where “balls to the wall” originated that would be something. I know from my dad’s navigator writings in 1944 B17s that “Brain Fart” was already in use.
Mike
Balls to the wall came from the Vietnam era planes having ball like knobs on top of the throttles. Of course meaning push them to the firewall going full speed. It probably caught on rather easily because of the obvious double entendre.
Loved your piece on calling a cockpit a cockpit.
Thank you for a very interesting history.
I’m staying with cockpit and I will always be a student — always ready to learn more.
The FAA needs to spend its time on more important issues.
The term knots always makes me laugh..when pilots trying to impress me using knots I often point at a traveling car and ask them how many knots it is traveling with them having a dumb look on their faces. I find it far more safe using MPH..something all we Americans have grown up with.
Well, Knots ( Nautical Miles per Hour) and MPH are 2 different units of measure no different from ounces and grams but even more complicated by the use of Kilometers as is becoming more standard internationally. A Nautical Mile is approximately 15% longer than a statute mile ( MPH) and is based on units of geographic latitude instead of an arbitrary unit of feet (5280) . So a car traveling 60 MPH is traveling 51 Knots. YOu may have noticed that car speedometers are becoming more common having dual markings for KPH and MPH. This is an interesting read… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knot_(unit)
Well… first no one is trying to impress you. Knots is the standard unit of measure in aviation. Much like cockpit the term also came from nautical beginnings when the speed of the ships was measured by the number of knots used in a rope attached to a piece of wood known as the “common log”.
Many planes do not have instruments with “mph” markings on the instruments only “kts”. So telling a new “learner” that his plane stall at 50 mph when his airspeed indicator is marked in kts is bad for his health.
It’s bad because he’d be going 57.5 mph….?
I’m in agreement with you. I’ll always call it the cockpit. I’m tired of all the political correctness.
The FAA’s minute changes you mention are liberal politic nonsense.
It likely started with the new administrators Mr. Elwell or Mr. Dickson seeking a way to “mark” their new territory such as what animals do, but especially dogs, by urinating in the corners of their new territory to convey that they’re the new boss..
If “learner” originated from institutions of higher learning, well, since most of the faculty are adherents to liberal politic, then that makes sense. In as far are replacing “cockpit”, a word that likely many FAA bureaucrats consider a vulgar word (apparently because of their dirty minds), then it makes sense that “flight deck” replaced that word.
A number of years ago a patient of mine gave me a copy of Victor Lougheed’s book you mention in your article. It is an original copy published in November 1909 and is quite delicate with brittle pages so I hesitate to ever open it or even handle it. But its nice to learn about the apparent importance of the book. I will treasure it even more now thanks to your mention of it.
Mike
Well, i go back to the old days when ,if someone said you were gay–it meant you were happy–and if you were called a good head-it meant you were smart—leave it a cockpit. But unfortunately when they hire new people they have to do something to justify their job. I guess then, no matter the certificate you have or how many flight hours you have, when you have an aircraft accident today, I guess you could say he was a learner !
I see the changing of terms such as Cockpit to Flight Deck and others simply a way to keep some over paid clerk employeed. Keep changing terminology that has been around and used everyday for over a 100 years just to keep him or her busy.
I follow the nautical derivation as the early pilots especially military were college educated and/or aristocrats who had access to crew rowing and sailing both using the word cockpit”. – Jim Heffelfinger
Interesting reading however after over 50 years of flying I have never had a student (learner) get confused over what I was referring to regardless of whether I called it a cockpit or flight deck. If you do seek another profession. We often referred to the flight deck as the cockpit. Flight attendants tended to like to call it the cockpit or in some cases the crotchety pit. My guess is you correctly determined the term came from a nautical term..
I agree with most replies that the time and expenses spent on these types of changes could be much better spent if addressing real issues and safety.
Sorta of “stomping piss ants while elephants run thru the realestate”.
In addition to the foregoing one must not leave out our nautical brethren and discount “Wheel House” Having experienced such a house aboard a Supermarine Walrus and a PBY the term has SOME credence.
Back to the original question tho’, the COCKELL is a floating (sometimes) woven misguided mess which can associate with some cockpits.
I’ll leave the correct answer(supposing there is one ! )to the committee of thinkers and literary giants perusing this conundrum.
Good luck All !
Peter D
All this rambling about cockpits and flight decks and I thought it was to be more friendly to the female persuasion of operators “pilots” that is.
I checked many years ago and found that a cockpit is “an enclosed space where fights take place”…as in cock fights. That’s where I think it comes from.
There was an all female flight crew that renamed the cockpit to the box office
Cockpit. I like it like it is!
Interesting article on the origins of the name cockpit. As for the ” changes ” by the FAA, the planes smaller than a DC-3 will always be referred to as having a cockpit where planes from the DC-3 on up will have a flight deck. The words ” student ” and ” learner ” are [ in my mind ] interchangeable, just because some College wants to jazz up their student body doesn’t mean the rest of us need to go along. Just my thoughts.
And do not forget someone at the FAA probably got a bonus, paid via your tax dollars, to dream up this politically correct non-sensical idea and get it finalized. AND, that person or ‘team’ seems to have forgotten to ask their clientele, us, whether or not it was a good idea. Sort of seems norm for the FAA bureaucracy!
Bureau = desk
Cracy = crazies
Bureaucracy = “desk crazies”.
These people denigrate history!
If something isn’t broken, why try to fix it? Change for the sake of change is not always change for the better. As your Abraham Lincoln said, “If you want to test a man’s character, give him some power”!!!!!
Or, as is attributed to your Benjamin Franklin, “Thank God I am a reasonable man! I can find a reason for anything I want to do!”
What a useless waste of resources to change “cockpit” to “flight deck” etc. But, I guess it gives the FAA an excuse to ignore real problems like NOTAM’s … .
That said, I am going to the airport (if that is still its proper name), do a preflight (is that the correct term?)
Randy: Excuse me sir, there’s been a little problem in the cockpit…
Striker: The cockpit…what is it?
Randy: It’s the little room in the front of the plane where the pilots sit, but that’s not important right now.
A few years ago an all-girl C-5 crew referred to their cockpit as the womb room!
Thanks for the informative article. With most of my flight time in Lockheeds….130s and 141s, I appreciate learning the lingual connections.
On the issue of evolving language, it is noteworthy that we never heard any earlier complaints about either term, cockpit or student… Seems the FAA has way too much time on their hands, or there are some sensitive sissies therein that most of us cockpit types might not relate to!
It will always be the “cockpit” to me. Some airline Captains refer to the control cabin as the flight deck and that works for them. I have never heard any airline passenger make any remark about the pilots being in the cockpit, flt. deck or control cabin. This discussion finally gave me the answer of why there are so many general aviation accidents. The FAA is spending time on issues like this instead of the issues that really need to be addressed. I don’t know about the rest of my fellow pilots, but I will always be a learner. If you don’t learn something on every flt. regardless of experience level you are doing something wrong.
Your last three sentences are essential! Very well expressed
Interesting but studiously avoids the, likely, real origin, that was where the male pilots sat with the “joy-stick” between their legs. The reference is pretty obvious in my estimation. Admittedly some of the early aircraft had wheels mounted on the column but the column rising from the floor between the legs……..
Sorry Mike but that answer is quite incorrect.
If it is any consolation, I suggest that most would think that.
Garth Elliot
And that went right over your head, did a barrel roll and climbed to FL450. It was a JOKE.
Sounds to me that the PC police have invaded the FAA. Nothing wrong with cockpit or student. They are well known and familiar to the aviation community as well as the rest of the world and FAA has accomplished nothing by changing them, a trend that seems to be pervasive in our Washington Swamp.
Aviation borrows a lot of terms from sailing; knots (short for nautical mile), port (airport), bulkhead, captain, crew, manifest, trim, pilot (navigator), even the red and green lights on the wings. The term ‘cockpit’ is taken from ship design also. The ‘cockpit’ a depression in the deck for the tiller and helmsman or cockswain.
More political correctness infecting our lives!! I don’t need it.a boy is a boy,girl is a girl,there’s still mom n dad weather anyone likes it or not!! And I’ll call it a cockpit if I choose ..wat I want not you!!and a student will always be a student.anf if anyone doesn’t like it they can kiss my …..
You and I would get along very well. “Cockpit,” there I said it. The level of idiocy never ceases to stun me.
I remember our days in the USNavy when we called it the cock house.
Way to much “political correctness” going on so we offend “NO ONE” ,
Sorry, it is to much like what you hear about on the 5 O’clock “no news hour”.
Why can’t we continue to use both words? We did it in the Super Constellation, but I would never have thought to call the T-34 cockpit a flight deck. Of course, those of us who served on aircraft carriers know what a flight deck is.
Sop, here is another question! What is the origin of the term “joystick”? I guess i know but would be interested in hearing other “histories”.
Thanks
Cockpit reminds me o. MAYDAY I heard – on a nasty snow filled night ready for takeoff in B-47 at Lincoln AFB… the Call from the B-47 that took off in front of me was
” MAYDAY! MAYDAY! MAYDAY! I have have…Cock… in the Smoke Pit “
Never was fond of rewriting history, if it was good enough for grandpa it’s good enough for me
We may have been taught wrong but history is history and can never be “rewritten”. What really happened will eventually emerge, even if it isn’t what we want to hear.
“The further back you look, the further forward you see” – Sir Winston Churchill
Well, I’m impressed . . . my humble Cessna 150 now has a FLIGHT DECK just like the big iron! OK, move over A380, 747, C5-A, AN-225 and all the rest of you tired old rabble – MY airplane has a FLIGHT DECK too! Ego boost anyone? (There are times I am very glad I don’t get all the government I am paying for.)
The pilot compartment in the T-37/T-38 is called the cockpit. Being a small vessel you need to step into it over the side of the aircraft. After flying T-37s for nearly 4 years, I was introduced to the flight deck of a B-52G. Seemed to make sense to me even though I would swap the term from time to time to cockpit from the earlier flying.
The term cockpit is pretty universal in flying since my first aircraft to fly in was a glider in Germany and my WWII Luftwaffe veteran instructor pilot called the area in which you controlled the glider “der Cockpit”.
I am currently teaching three ladies to fly and known of them seem to mind the term cockpit and they freely use the term also. All are members of the 99ers.
I will admit this is the first time I have ever seen research on the origin of the word. After reading this article, I’m inclined to think cockpit is from nautical origin, just like many of the other aircraft/aviation terms.
Wonderful Article and very enlightening, I was always under the impression it was a World War One term, however the facts you’ve given surrounding the Lougheed origin are more than compelling.
It however Saddens me greatly that real history is being written out of history by the PC police, even in aviation.. because some hypersensitive are offended presumably due to their own lack of knowledge.
This is what the FAA is concerned about ?? I suggest they refocus to matters such as mentioned in their mission statement.