Cockpits: Design and Development

The cockpit design has been drastically affected by the introduction of advanced technologies and by an understanding of Human Factors engineering. The aerospace community is undoubtedly one pillar of this revolution. The advent of new display technologies, fly-by-wire controlled systems, highly integrated systems, among others, has stired up the transition from “clock-work” to “glass” cockpit There are points to be carefully considered and analysed throughout the design and development of modern flight decks such as ergonomics, technical aspects involved in the design and the use of automation for workload reduction.

Taking for granted that mobile technology can apply the basic concepts from aircraft cockpits into other different fields, such as automotive, this paper discusses the cockpit design in the light of general concepts that could be easily fitted in mobile vehicle as a whole.