Why does a cockpit in a plane have controls for two pilots?

Answer 1

Aircraft are catagorized by their size and capabilities. Aircraft of a certain catagory that the FAA refers to as Part 25, normally business jets, and larger are required to have dual pilot controls. This does entail much of what other responders have said regarding handling emergencies and the complexity of aircraft operation. However, the primary reason for a Part 25 aircraft to have 2 sets of controls is to provide sufficient redundancy in the event of a jammed or malfunctioning set of flight controls.

These aircraft will often have two independent ways of controlling each of the 3 axes: Roll, Pitch, and Yaw. If something goes wrong with one set of the controls, (Pilot's rudder pedals, Co-Pilot's Control Wheel, etc.) the other system can be used to counteract the affects of the failure and maintain continued safe flight. One reason there is the ability to separate controls in the cockpit is the case of a jam of the Pilot's or Co-Pilot's controls. The Pilot or Co-Pilot will separate controls and try to figure out which side the fault is on, and the crew will use the other side to control the aircraft. Also, if a control surface, like a rudder, fails and makes the aircraft turn, the ability to split controls allows the other crew member to counteract with his or her control.

In smaller aircraft, Part 23, LSA , the ability to split controls is not required, but two sets of controls are often included so that long flights can be covered by multiple pilots and for assitance in emergency situations.

Answer 2

Its very simple.

An airplane is a very sophisticated piece of equiptment.
There is allways a possibility that for some reason or another, one of the pilots may become either incapacitated or otherwise, unable to fly the plane. That is why we have CO-PILOTS.
Whether the pilot has to get up and take a dump, or go get something to eat from the galley, a commercial aircraft never flies without a flight crew.

A second pilot is able to go over checklists, radio controls and all other types of information as trivial as HYDRAULICS and AVIONICS/RADAR info while the other pilot simply concentrates on flying the plane. They can take turns when it becomes neccesary.

There is also a theory about building airplanes with REDUNDANCY. Redundancy implies that major aircaraft systems will be built two or more times to ensure that there will be a backup if it comes down to it. If one of the control yolks breaks or one of the throttle systems stops working, the pilot will allways have the ability to save the airframe buy jumping into the next pit. Since all airplanes now use FLY-BY-WIRE electrical systems and there are no hard links to control surfaces, it is highly important to have redudant systems.


In regards to military aircraft like the F-14, F-18, etc, again, there is allways the possibility the pilot may become unable to handle the plane, but, in this case the weapons technology is so sophisticated that the pilot cannot fly the plane and bomb targets simultaneously. Therefore, the Co-pilot's job is to target the enemy and kill them while the pilot lines him up for the shots.

Also keep in mind there is a possibility of equiptment failure, or even a Lefty-Righty handed pilot. Some pilots perfer to sit on the left and some perfer to sit on the right.

Redundancy in flight controls makes certain that if the aircraft is hit buy an enemy round in a vital area, damaging one set of controls the other set will be able to take over - or at worst, eject both pilots.

Answer 3

There are 2 ways to look at it.

The Serious Way:
You need back-up. The planes these days are a very sophesticated piece of machinery, which carry a lot of people and cargo. Because of any unforeseeable reason, if the Pilot is incapacitated to fly the plane, there is a Backup in the Co-Pilot.

Furthermore, the Co-Pilot assits the Pilot in Take-Off, Landing, The Flight time, There are also many checklists and controls which need to be handled during the flight, which is not possble by a single person. Hence, there is a Pilot, A Co-Pilot and an Assistant.

The Funny Way:
Lets be honest. I would'nt want to be flying on a plane which is being handled by someone who is called 'UNDER TESTING' or ' A TEST RUN'. It is darn too scary and my life is precious. Hence we give another person another set of controls ...... JUST IN CASE ............................. HA HA !!!

Answer 4

To keep it simple..
Flying an airplane with multiple engines, multiple systems in often very bad weather with little or no foward visability is a demanding job.
It is very easy, particularily when flying in hard IMC (instrument meteorlogical conditions) for anyone to forget something, overlook a checklist item, forget a clearance, mis-tune a radio, be at a wrong airspeed and /or altitude etc etc. A second pilot is there to over see and double check the actions of the flying pilot and to lessen his/her workload.
This is particularily important in the handling of Emergencies and Malfunctions. One pilot must have full attention to flying the airplane while the non-flying pilot will handle the emergency.
There is also the lessor function of redundancy. Although extremely rare, pilots have become incapacitated and a second pilot will recognize this before it becomes critical.
The third reason is for training purposes. All Captains spend time as Co-pilots seasoning their skill and performance. Dual controls facilitate this in a safe manner.

Hope this helps..

Oh and with respect to an earlier answerer...
Single Cessnas, Helicopters, many fighters as well as most other light aircraft DO have dual controls or the provision for them.

Answer 5

sometimes its not just two pilots, before 911, i always visit the cockpits during my flights and i found out that on long haul flights with big planes like the 747 there is more than two pilots and inside the cockpit they have another room thats kind of like a bedroom where they can rest. its pretty cool

Answer 6

Well, first of all, not all planes do.

Single engine Cessna's don't.
All fighters don't.
Helicopters don't.
... and all these vehicles have cockpits.


What you must be referring to is commercial aviation.
Commercial planes get their bloodlines from large military bomber aircraft, the most famous of which is the B-17 of WWII. These planes needed to fly into enemy territory, drop their bombs, and get back home with their plane and crew. This type of aircraft was subjected to attack from both the ground (surface to air "flak" guns) and the air (defensive fighter aircraft). Both of these types of attacks could leave any crewmember wounded or dead. The "copilot" configuration allowed for a second pilot to be able to fly the plane safely home if the pilot was wounded or killed.

When the first commercial aircrafts arrived and were propellor driven, and might take 7 or 8 hours to get to their destinations, the second pilot could give a rest to the first on the longer voyages.

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Answer 7

Backup.
Two pilots two controls.
When you are doing an approach to an airfield, there are a lot of things you must do... tuning radios, flying the aircraft, preparing for landing, reviewing checklists, etc... the two pilots share the duty of flying the aircraft, and, with a "positive, two way transfer of controls" hand off flying the aircraft through-out a flight.

Answer 8

To fill on the last answer there. There is 2 crew's of 3 proffessionals on long flights. By regulation a pilot cannot fly for any longer than 8 hours on a given flight. So on a flight of 16,13 or whateve x amount of hours the second crew takes over and that one goes to sleep.

Answer 9

One for the Pilot, one for the co-pilot

Answer 10

Because 3 pilots would make the airplane too wide :-)