Why do aircraft cockpits always have to be at the top?

Question

why not at the front? like a dome. you can have a better view of front/top/down/left/right... when an aircraft climbs, at any angle of attack, it can be quite dangerous. he would not be able to see what is ahead of him, hence a collision might occur (taking the factor of radio out). this is real!... i know, it would be structurally weaker. but advancements in technology of materials has made it possible for stronger glasses. hence that eliminates the factor of structure... also, eliminate the reason of "previous aircraft have done it, i'm just following what has been done"...

this would be an interesting topic to debate on ;)

i know that all aircraft cockpits are at the front. but what i meant by top is, literally, you see the windows of the aircraft at the top side.

what i meant by cockpits at the front, is literally at the front, imagine the cockpit is at the front/nose of the plane. eliminate the reason of "to reduce all forms of drag", other reasons please :)

all the answers given seem to be very logical. so im not giving anyone any best answers =P

Answer 1

Any placement of the cockpit has drawbacks, namely blind spots. Pilots learn to live with these. Depending on the size and use of the aircraft, cockpits are placed to facilitate the most efficient use of the fusilage, including engine placement (such as in older fighters), Cargo bay loading requirements and passanger seating designs, and just sheer aerodynamics. Really the only time cockpit placement becomes a real problem is in the final stages of visual approaches, namely the flare. Some aircraft have blind spots that make it difficult to tell distance from the ground. This problem is especially present in larger aircraft where visually judging descent rates can be tricky. Instruments such as radio altimeters minimize this.
As for midair collisions, they are rare. When they occur and the cause seems to be some sort of visual drawback, it is often due to atmospheric/time of day conditions making it difficult to spot the aircraft, such as a grey sea merging with a grey sky right after sunset and trying to find an aircraft without the sun reflecting off it. No change in cockpit placement would help that.
The odds of a climing aircraft being involved in a midair collision with another that hits it head on under the nose without the pilot of either seeing it is slim to none.
Structural integrity hasn't been a problem for at least 65 years, just look at any picture of a B-29 or any other WW2 bomber with a plexyglass nose.

Answer 2

I've looked at the answers you've had so far and I'll add this. A pilot has to be able to have instrumentation out in full view in front to know what his aircraft has going on internally, plus speed indications, attitude, and so on. Add to this visibility, if the cockpit is left in the front of the aircraft only, you are limited to a straight ahead view only, side view would be drastically limited and rear view would be non existent.
Take a fighter pilots position, with radar and current technology, front view and a view of what is below is pretty well covered, yet the human eye still needs to be aware of what is in plain sight. now add the fact that if the pilot has to engage a target, or is being engaged, then every other possible view is needed, top, rear, side, and downward (as much as the eye can make out), and yes, they can see downward to a good degree.
So having a front only cockpit would have a great deal of limitations to affect a pilots handling of the aircraft. and of course having the cockpit on the bottom would obviously be the worst of all cases, especially if you had to make a gear up landing. I'd rather kiss God's green earth after I got out of the aircraft rather than while I'm trying to land it

Answer 3

You people are not thinking outside the box. There is a vertiable buttload of aircraft, old and new, that have the cockpit located somewhere other than the front. Mustangs, Thunderbolts, Spitfires, Zeros, all manner of WWII fighters, as well as modern aerobatic aircraft all have the cockpit located well behind the engine. Airships like the Fuji, Goodyear, and others have the cockpit located on the underside of the aircraft. Designers and engineers do what is necessary to maximize speed, efficiency and safety of aircraft. So if it were faster or safer or more efficient to have the cockpit in the front, I'm sure the engineers and designers would have already though of it. By the way, many helicopters, both old and new, have the cockpit in the front, inside of a transparent dome or bubble.

Answer 4

Practicability!
If vision is of paramount importance, then it would have been done so. But it ain't always so, the instruments, controls inputs and at times the powerplant too have their say in the design of the cockpit. Let us say, it wouldnt be of much help if you have a crystal clear nose mounted cockpit but you need to turn around every few seconds to know your heading or airspeed. Furthermore, your argument is valid only during the good visibility hours. In the clouds, in the rain or a few thousand feet high at night, it doesnt give any advantage over the present cockpit layouts that could justify such a design change.

Just out of interest, most powered hang-gliders have their "cockpits" right at the front!

Answer 5

simple explanation: It is a navagation station. They are located all over the nation. The send out signals that pilots can pick up through their radio and an instrument in the cockpit. The VOR station is kinda like the hub of a wheel with spokes sticking out in all directions. The instrument in the cockpit tells you which spoke you are on (0-360 degrees), the spokes are called radials. The instrument can also tell a pilot which way to go to get onto a different radial.

Answer 6

What you are referring to is the old world war era planes. Those design are obolete because there is no where to place the radar assembly but in the cone of the nose. The pilots rarely look outside the window anyways, they rely on their naviagation system and the fact that idiots do not play on the runway. The future of aircraft is windowless cockpits, instead there will be massive lcd screens which will display whats ahead and have the ability to "see thru" all bad weather including dense clouds, which in turn will improve safetly. But has not be in a flying prototype as if it fails the pilot would be flying blind.

Answer 7

They aren't - there are many examples of aircraft with the cockpit "at the front". Some that spring to mind are the Boeing B29, Heinkel 111, Blohm & Voss 141, Focke-Wulf 189, and a British aircraft called the Optica, designed for traffic surveillance. (see link below)

Answer 8

Mainly the same reasons you don't see any cars with full glass fronts: the instruments, controls, etc. all get in the way. At any rate, there are VERY few midair collisions anymore, since all airline traffic has to fly under instrument flight rules. Occasionally some small general aviation airplanes will collide, but that's mostly because of pilot technique/procedure problems, not so much visibility issues.

Answer 9

During WW2 some german projects were exploring a new configuration of the cockpit. the pilot was prone and the glass dome in the front of the airplane. this new configuration was interesting because the pilot was able to stand accelerations easily.....in fact one of the first model with this cockpit was a dive-bomber....a role with a big problem of acceleration and g-shock, black view.....

Answer 10

Ahhh... I'm not sure what type of aircraft you're talking about, but every one I've seen or flown has the cockpit at the front of the aircraft.