aircraft cockpit

thumb|thumbtime=36|Cockpit of an Airbus A319 during landing thumb|thumbtime=36|Cockpit of an IndiGo A320 A cockpit, also called flight deck, is the area, on the front part of an aircraft, spacecraft, or submersible, from which a pilot controls the vehicle.thumb|Cockpit of an Airbus A380|A380. Most Airbus cockpits/Flight Decks are glass cockpits featuring [[fly-by-wire technology.]] thumb|1936 de Havilland Hornet Moth. Note the bifurcated split stick control column. thumb|View of a cockpit seen from outside of a British Airways [[Boeing 747-400]] The cockpit of an aircraft contains flight instruments on an instrument panel, and the controls that enable the pilot to fly the aircraft. In most airliners, a door separates the cockpit/Flight Deck from the aircraft cabin. After the September 11, 2001 attacks, all major airlines fortified their cockpits against access by hijackers.

==Etymology== The word cockpit seems to have been used as a nautical term in the 17th century, without reference to cock fighting. It referred to an area in the rear of a ship where the cockswain's station was located, the cockswain being the pilot of a smaller "boat" that could be dispatched from the ship to board another ship or to bring people ashore. The word "cockswain" in turn derives from the old English terms for "boat-servant" (coque is the French word for "shell"; and swain was old English for boy or servant). The midshipmen and master's mates were later berthed in the cockpit, and it served as the action station for the ship's surgeon and his mates during battle. Thus by the 18th century, "cockpit" had come to designate an area in the rear lower deck of a warship where the wounded were taken. The same term later came to designate the place from which a sailing vessel is steered, because it is also located in the rear, and is often in a well or "pit".