Why is a cockpit called a cockpit?

Most people know a cockpit is the control room from where the pilot(s) control an aircraft – you may have even set foot in one – but have you ever wondered where the moniker comes from?

It wasn’t a term coined by an aviation authority and, bizarrely, the word predates the thing that it’s describing.

While nobody knows the exact etymology of the term, there are several theories.

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The origin of the word cockpit

A connection to the rooster battles

Texts from the 16th century reveal that cockpits were literal pits used for rooster battles, and the term contained to refer to an enclosed area for battle.

Considering this case, pilots in World War I might have used the same analogy to call their enclosed seats a cockpit.

Another hypothesis suggests that a pub 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.

An aircraft’s control center came to be synonymous with the control center used by the King, so its meaning carried over to airplanes.

Naval and aviation industries share common roots

Before airplanes were invented, traveling large distances was only possible via boats – check out the world’s oldest shipwreck here.

Boats used to have a coxswain or cockswain – 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 the boat was hence known as a cockpit.

Since several aviation terms were derived from nautical and naval traditions, the moniker was also adopted in aviation.

The boat theory is the one that most aviation experts would back.

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 drivers a cockpit-like experience.

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.

So now you know.