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59-614: It was the world's first low-wing monoplane shipboard fighter to enter service and the predecessor of the famous Mitsubishi A6M "Zero" . The Allied reporting name was Claude . In 1934, the Imperial Japanese Navy prepared a specification for an advanced fighter, requiring a maximum speed of 350 km/h (220 mph) at 3,000 m (9,800 ft) and able to climb to 5,000 m (16,000 ft) in 6.5 minutes. This 9- shi (1934) specification produced designs from both Mitsubishi and Nakajima . Mitsubishi assigned

118-614: A biplane fighter aircraft. Chinese Nationalist pilots, primarily flying the Curtiss Hawk III , fought against the Japanese, but the A5M was the better of almost every fighter aircraft it encountered. Though armed with only a pair of 7.7 mm (0.303 in) machine-guns, the new fighter proved effective and damage-tolerant, with excellent manoeuvrability and robust construction. Later on A5M's also provided much-needed escorts for

177-686: A convergent etymology does involve reference to cock fighting . According to the Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology , the buildings in London where the king's cabinet worked (the Treasury and the Privy Council ) were called the "Cockpit" because they were built on the site of a theater called The Cockpit (torn down in 1635), which itself was built in the place where a "cockpit" for cock-fighting had once stood prior to

236-416: A few specialist types. Jet and rocket engines have even more power and all modern high-speed aircraft, especially supersonic types, have been monoplanes. Cockpit A cockpit or flight deck is the area, on the front part of an aircraft , spacecraft , or submersible , from which a pilot controls the vehicle. The cockpit of an aircraft contains flight instruments on an instrument panel, and

295-627: A light aircraft, the configuration is significant because it offers superior visibility to the pilot. On light aircraft, shoulder-wings tend to be mounted further aft than a high wing, and so may need to be swept forward to maintain correct center of gravity . Examples of light aircraft with shoulder wings include the ARV Super2 , the Bölkow Junior , Saab Safari and the Barber Snark . A high wing has its upper surface on or above

354-406: A mere 3% increase in maximum speed) arising from use of a retractable undercarriage was not felt to justify the extra weight. The first prototype , powered by a 447 kW (600 hp) Nakajima Kotobuki 5 radial engine , flew on 4 February 1935. The aircraft far exceeded the requirements of the specification, with a maximum speed of 450 km/h (280 mph) being reached. The second prototype

413-407: A pendulous fuselage which requires no wing dihedral for stability; and, by comparison with a low-wing, a shoulder-wing's limited ground effect reduces float on landing. Compared to a low-wing, shoulder-wing and high-wing configurations give increased propeller clearance on multi-engined aircraft. On a large aircraft, there is little practical difference between a shoulder wing and a high wing; but on

472-470: A popular configuration for amphibians and small homebuilt and ultralight aircraft . Although the first successful aircraft were biplanes, the first attempts at heavier-than-air flying machines were monoplanes, and many pioneers continued to develop monoplane designs. For example, the first aeroplane to be put into production was the 1907 Santos-Dumont Demoiselle , while the Blériot XI flew across

531-478: 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

590-424: A sun shield. Most cockpits have windows that can be opened when the aircraft is on the ground. Nearly all glass windows in large aircraft have an anti-reflective coating , and an internal heating element to melt ice. Smaller aircraft may be equipped with a transparent aircraft canopy . In most cockpits the pilot's control column or joystick is located centrally ( centre stick ), although in some military fast jets

649-513: A two-seater cockpit . This version, used for pilot training , was dubbed the A5M4-K . K version aircraft continued to be used for pilot training long after standard A5Ms left front-line service. Almost all A5Ms had open cockpits. A closed cockpit was tried but found little favor among Navy aviators. All had fixed, non-retractable undercarriage. Wheel spats were a feature of standard fighters but not training aircraft. The Flying Tigers encountered

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708-489: A wing of a given size, the weight reduction allows it to fly slower and with a lower-powered and more economical engine. For this reason, all monoplane wings in the pioneer era were braced and most were up until the early 1930s. However, the exposed struts or wires create additional drag, lowering aerodynamic efficiency and reducing the maximum speed. High-speed and long-range designs tend to be pure cantilevers, while low-speed short-range types are often given bracing. Besides

767-432: Is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes , which have multiple planes. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing configuration and is the simplest to build. However, during the early years of flight, these advantages were offset by its greater weight and lower manoeuvrability, making it relatively rare until

826-632: Is a disassembled one underwater in the sunken ship Fujikawa Maru in Chuuk Lagoon in Micronesia , along with a number of disassembled Mitsubishi A6M Zeros . Data from Japanese Aircraft of the Pacific War and The Concise Guide to Axis Aircraft of World War II General characteristics Performance Armament Aircraft of comparable role, configuration, and era Related lists Monoplane A monoplane

885-410: Is that the fuselage is closer to the ground which eases cargo loading, especially for aircraft with a rear-fuselage cargo door. Military cargo aircraft are predominantly high-wing designs with a rear cargo door. A parasol wing is not directly attached to the fuselage but held above it, supported by either cabane struts or a pylon. Additional bracing may be provided by struts or wires extending from

944-497: Is usually located in a prominent position, either centrally or on either side of the cockpit. It will in most cases include a digitized presentation of the attitude indicator, air speed and altitude indicators (usually as a tape display) and the vertical speed indicator. It will in many cases include some form of heading indicator and ILS/VOR deviation indicators. In many cases an indicator of the engaged and armed autoflight system modes will be present along with some form of indication of

1003-429: The left seat , so that they can operate the throttles and other pedestal instruments with their right hand . The tradition has been maintained to this day, with the co-pilot on the right hand side. The layout of the cockpit, especially in the military fast jet, has undergone standardisation, both within and between aircraft, manufacturers and even nations. An important development was the "Basic Six" pattern, later

1062-571: The English Channel in 1909. Throughout 1909–1910, Hubert Latham set multiple altitude records in his Antoinette IV monoplane, eventually reaching 1,384 m (4,541 ft). The equivalent German language term is Eindecker , as in the mid-wing Fokker Eindecker fighter of 1915 which for a time dominated the skies in what became known as the " Fokker scourge ". The German military Idflieg aircraft designation system prior to 1918 prefixed monoplane type designations with an E , until

1121-582: The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration ( NASA ) have researched the ergonomic aspects of cockpit design and have conducted investigations of airline industry accidents. Cockpit design disciplines include Cognitive science , Neuroscience , Human–computer interaction , Human Factors Engineering , Anthropometry and Ergonomics . Aircraft designs have adopted

1180-693: The Fokker D.VIII and Morane-Saulnier AI in the later part of the First World War. A parasol wing also provides a high mounting point for engines and during the interwar period was popular on flying boats, which need to lift the propellers clear of spray. Examples include the Martin M-130 , Dornier Do 18 and the Consolidated PBY Catalina . Compared to a biplane , a parasol wing has less bracing and lower drag. It remains

1239-647: The Ki-27 . The aircraft entered service in early 1937, and soon saw action in aerial battles at the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War , including air-to-air battles with the Republic of China Air Force 's Boeing P-26 C Model 281 "Peashooters" in the world's first aerial dogfighting and kills between monoplane fighters built of mostly metal. The A5M replaced the Nakajima A4N1 in service,

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1298-491: The Second World War when enclosed cockpits became the norm. The largest impediment to having closed cabins was the material used to make the windows. Prior to Perspex becoming available in 1933, windows were either safety glass, which was heavy, or cellulose nitrate (i.e.: guncotton) , which yellowed quickly and was extremely flammable. In the mid-1920s many aircraft manufacturers began using enclosed cockpits for

1357-451: The braced parasol wing became popular on fighter aircraft, although few arrived in time to see combat. It remained popular throughout the 1920s. On flying boats with a shallow hull, a parasol wing allows the engines to be mounted above the spray from the water when taking off and landing. This arrangement was popular on flying boats during the 1930s; a late example being the Consolidated PBY Catalina . It died out when taller hulls became

1416-433: The side-stick is located on the right hand side. In some commercial airliners (i.e.: Airbus—which features the glass cockpit concept) both pilots use a side-stick located on the outboard side, so Captain's side-stick on the left and First-officer's seat on the right. Except for some helicopters, the right seat in the cockpit of an aircraft is the seat used by the co-pilot . The captain or pilot in command sits in

1475-484: The "Basic T", developed from 1937 onwards by the Royal Air Force , designed to optimise pilot instrument scanning. Ergonomics and Human Factors concerns are important in the design of modern cockpits. The layout and function of cockpit displays controls are designed to increase pilot situation awareness without causing information overload. In the past, many cockpits, especially in fighter aircraft, limited

1534-460: The 1580s. Thus the word Cockpit came to mean a control center. The original meaning of "cockpit", first attested in the 1580s, is "a pit for fighting cocks", referring to the place where cockfights were held. This meaning no doubt influenced both lines of evolution of the term, since a cockpit in this sense was a tight enclosure where a great deal of stress or tension would occur. From about 1935, cockpit came to be used informally to refer to

1593-725: The 1930s, the cantilever monoplane was fast becoming the standard configuration for a fixed-wing aircraft. Advanced monoplane fighter-aircraft designs were mass-produced for military services around the world in both the Soviet Union and the United States in the early–mid 1930s, with the Polikarpov I-16 and the Boeing P-26 Peashooter respectively. Most military aircraft of WWII were monoplanes, as have been virtually all aircraft since, except for

1652-457: The 1930s. Since then, the monoplane has been the most common form for a fixed-wing aircraft. The inherent efficiency of the monoplane is best achieved in the cantilever wing, which carries all structural forces internally. However, to fly at practical speeds the wing must be made thin, which requires a heavy structure to make it strong and stiff enough. External bracing can be used to improve structural efficiency, reducing weight and cost. For

1711-530: The A5M as a fighter took place at the Battle of the Coral Sea on 7 May 1942, when two A5Ms and four A6Ms of the Japanese carrier Shōhō fought against US aircraft that sank their carrier. In the closing months of the war most remaining A5M airframes were used for kamikaze attacks. Data from Januszewski Data from No restored or airworthy A5Ms are known to be in existence. The one A5M known to exist

1770-641: The A5M until production of the Zero caught up with demand. On 1 February 1942, the US carrier USS Enterprise launched air strikes at Japanese air and naval bases on Roi and Kwajalein Atolls in the Marshall Islands . During these actions, Mitsubishi A5Ms shot down three Douglas SBD dive bombers, including the aircraft of LtCdr. Halstead Hopping, commanding officer of VS-6 Squadron. The last combat actions with

1829-514: The Electronic Centralized Aircraft Monitor (ECAM), used by Airbus , allow the pilot to monitor the following information: values for N1, N2 and N3, fuel temperature, fuel flow, the electrical system, cockpit or cabin temperature and pressure, control surfaces and so on. The pilot may select display of information by means of button press. The flight management system/control and/or display unit may be used by

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1888-689: The IJAAF's current fighter, the Kawasaki Ki-10 biplane , the type was rejected by the army owing to its reduced maneuverability. The Army then produced a specification for an improved advanced fighter to replace the Ki-10. Mitsubishi, busy turning the Ka-14 into the A5M, submitted a minimally changed aircraft as the Ki-33 , this being defeated by Nakajima's competing aircraft, which was ordered into service as

1947-767: The Type 96, although not officially, and one was shot down at Mingaladon airfield , Burma on 29 January 1942. Some A5Ms remained in service at the end of 1941 when the United States entered World War II in the Pacific. US intelligence sources believed the A5M still served as Japan's primary Navy fighter, when in fact the A6M Zero had replaced it on first-line aircraft carriers and with the Tainan Kōkūtai in Taiwan . Other Japanese carriers and Kōkūtai (air groups) continued to use

2006-481: The aircraft more manoeuvrable, as on the Spitfire ; but aircraft that value stability over manoeuvrability may then need some dihedral . A feature of the low-wing position is its significant ground effect , giving the plane a tendency to float farther before landing. Conversely, this ground effect permits shorter takeoffs. A mid wing is mounted midway up the fuselage. The carry-through spar structure can reduce

2065-525: The approval of the Fokker D.VIII fighter from its former "E.V" designation. However, the success of the Fokker was short-lived, and World War I was dominated by biplanes. Towards the end of the war, the parasol monoplane became popular and successful designs were produced into the 1920s. Nonetheless, relatively few monoplane types were built between 1914 and the late 1920s, compared with the number of biplanes. The reasons for this were primarily practical. With

2124-473: The autopilot and the autothrottle. The panel as an area is usually referred to as the "glareshield panel". MCP is a Boeing designation (that has been informally adopted as a generic name for the unit/panel) for a unit that allows for the selection and parameter setting of the different autoflight functions, the same unit on an Airbus aircraft is referred to as the FCU (Flight Control unit). The primary flight display

2183-407: 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". However,

2242-466: The controls that enable the pilot to fly the aircraft. In most airliners, a door separates the cockpit from the aircraft cabin . After the September 11, 2001 attacks , all major airlines fortified their cockpits against access by hijackers . 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

2301-535: The driver's cabin, especially in high performance cars , and this is official terminology used to describe the compartment that the driver occupies in a Formula One car. In an airliner , the cockpit is usually referred to as the flight deck , the term deriving from its use by the RAF for the separate, upper platform in large flying boats where the pilot and co-pilot sat. In the USA and many other countries, however,

2360-600: The first time. Early airplanes with closed cockpits include the 1924 Fokker F.VII , the 1926 German Junkers W 34 transport, the 1926 Ford Trimotor , the 1927 Lockheed Vega , the Spirit of St. Louis and the passenger aircraft manufactured by the Douglas and Boeing companies during the mid-1930s. Open-cockpit airplanes were almost extinct by the mid-1950s, with the exception of training planes, crop-dusters and homebuilt aircraft designs. Cockpit windows may be equipped with

2419-472: The fully digital "glass cockpit". In such designs, instruments and gauges, including navigational map displays, use a user interface markup language known as ARINC 661 . This standard defines the interface between an independent cockpit display system, generally produced by a single manufacturer, and the avionics equipment and user applications it is required to support, by means of displays and controls, often made by different manufacturers. The separation between

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2478-402: The fuselage sides. The first parasol monoplanes were adaptations of shoulder wing monoplanes, since raising a shoulder mounted wing above the fuselage greatly improved visibility downwards, which was useful for reconnaissance roles, as with the widely used Morane-Saulnier L . The parasol wing allows for an efficient design with good pilot visibility, and was adopted for some fighters such as

2537-433: The general variations in wing configuration such as tail position and use of bracing, the main distinction between types of monoplane is where the wing is mounted vertically on the fuselage . A low wing is one which is located on or near the bottom of the fuselage. Placing the wing low allows good visibility upwards and frees the central fuselage from the wing spar carry-through. By reducing pendulum stability, it makes

2596-568: The glareshield. A central concept in the design of the cockpit is the Design Eye Position or "DEP", from which point all displays should be visible. Most modern cockpits will also include some kind of integrated warning system . A study undertaken in 2013, to assess methods for cockpit-user menu navigation, found that touchscreen produced the "best scores". After the September 11, 2001 attacks , all major airlines fortified their cockpits against access by hijackers . In

2655-408: The industry. The majority of the systems-related controls (such as electrical, fuel, hydraulics and pressurization) for example, are usually located in the ceiling on an overhead panel. Radios are generally placed on a panel between the pilot's seats known as the pedestal. Automatic flight controls such as the autopilot are usually placed just below the windscreen and above the main instrument panel on

2714-614: The largest air battles ever fought at the time. The battle of 29 April saw 67 Polikarpov fighters (31 I-16s and 36 I-15 bis) against 18 G3Ms escorted by 27 A5Ms. Each side claimed victory: the Chinese/Soviet side claimed 21 Japanese aircraft (11 fighters and 10 bombers) shot down with 50 Japanese airmen killed and two captured having bailed out while losing 12 aircraft and 5 pilots killed; the Japanese claimed they lost only two G3Ms and two A5Ms shot down with over 40 Chinese aircraft shot down. 104 A5M aircraft were modified to accommodate

2773-415: The low engine powers and airspeeds available, the wings of a monoplane needed to be large in order to create enough lift while a biplane could have two smaller wings and so be made smaller and lighter. Towards the end of the First World War, the inherent high drag of the biplane was beginning to restrict performance. Engines were not yet powerful enough to make the heavy cantilever-wing monoplane viable, and

2832-406: The modern electronic cockpit, the electronic flight instruments usually regarded as essential are MFD, PFD, ND, EICAS, FMS/CDU and back-up instruments. A Mode control panel , usually a long narrow panel located centrally in front of the pilot, may be used to control heading, speed, altitude, vertical speed, vertical navigation and lateral navigation. It may also be used to engage or disengage both

2891-410: The norm during World War II, allowing a high wing to be attached directly to the hull. As ever-increasing engine powers made the weight of all-metal construction and the cantilever wing more practical — first pioneered together by the revolutionary German Junkers J 1 factory demonstrator in 1915–16 — they became common during the post–World War I period, the day of the braced wing passed, and by

2950-402: The pilot to enter and check for the following information: flight plan, speed control, navigation control, etc. In a less prominent part of the cockpit, in case of failure of the other instruments, there will be a battery-powered integrated standby instrument system along with a magnetic compass, showing essential flight information such as speed, altitude, attitude and heading. In the U.S.

3009-498: The selected values for altitude, speed, vertical speed and heading. It may be pilot selectable to swap with the ND. A navigation display, which may be adjacent to the PFD, shows the route and information on the next waypoint , wind speed and wind direction. It may be pilot selectable to swap with the PFD. The Engine Indication and Crew Alerting System (EICAS), used by Boeing and Embraer , or

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3068-680: The size of the pilots that could fit into them. Now, cockpits are being designed to accommodate from the 1st percentile female physical size to the 99th percentile male size. In the design of the cockpit in a military fast jet, the traditional "knobs and dials" associated with the cockpit are mainly absent. Instrument panels are now almost wholly replaced by electronic displays, which are themselves often re-configurable to save space. While some hard-wired dedicated switches must still be used for reasons of integrity and safety, many traditional controls are replaced by multi-function re-configurable controls or so-called "soft keys". Controls are incorporated onto

3127-650: The stick and throttle to enable the pilot to maintain a head-up and eyes-out position – the Hands On Throttle And Stick or HOTAS concept. These controls may be then further augmented by control media such as head pointing with a Helmet Mounted Sighting System or Direct voice input (DVI). Advances in auditory displays allow for Direct Voice Output of aircraft status information and for the spatial localisation of warning sounds for improved monitoring of aircraft systems. The layout of control panels in modern airliners has become largely unified across

3186-439: The task of designing the new fighter to a team led by Jiro Horikoshi (original creator of the similar but unsuccessful Mitsubishi 1MF10 , and later responsible for the famous A6M Zero ). The resulting design, designated Ka-14 by Mitsubishi, was an all-metal low-wing fighter, with a thin elliptical inverted gull wing and a fixed undercarriage , which was chosen as the increase in performance (estimated as 10% in drag, but only

3245-525: The term cockpit is also used for airliners. The seat of a powerboat racing craft is also referred to as the cockpit. The first airplane with an enclosed cabin appeared in 1912 on the Avro Type F ; however, during the early 1920s there were many passenger aircraft in which the crew remained open to the air while the passengers sat in a cabin. Military biplanes and the first single-engined fighters and attack aircraft also had open cockpits, some as late as

3304-487: The then-modern but vulnerable Mitsubishi G3M bombers. The Mitsubishi team continued to improve the A5M, working through versions until the final A5M4 , which carried an external underside drop tank to provide fuel for extended range. The A5M's most competitive adversary in the air was the Polikarpov I-16 , a fast and heavily armed fighter flown by both Chinese Air Force regulars and Soviet volunteers. Air battles in 1938, especially on 18 February and 29 April, ranked among

3363-453: The top of the fuselage. It shares many advantages and disadvantages with the shoulder wing, but on a light aircraft, the high wing has poorer upwards visibility. On light aircraft such as the Cessna 152 , the wing is usually located above the cabin, so that the wing spar passes over the occupants' heads, leaving the wing in the ideal fore-aft position. An advantage of the high-wing configuration

3422-439: The useful fuselage volume near its centre of gravity, where space is often in most demand. A shoulder wing (a category between high-wing and mid-wing) is a configuration whereby the wing is mounted near the top of the fuselage but not on the very top. It is so called because it sits on the "shoulder" of the fuselage, rather than on the pilot's shoulder. Shoulder-wings and high-wings share some characteristics, namely: they support

3481-647: Was fitted with a revised, ungulled wing, and after various changes to maximize maneuverability and reduce drag, was ordered into production as the A5M . With the Ka-14 demonstrating excellent performance, the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force ordered a single modified prototype for evaluation as the Ki-18 . While this demonstrated similar performance to the Navy aircraft and hence was far faster than

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