Why Pilots?

[Mad (Flt) Scientist]

No, not a thread advocating increased automation!

I'm wondering why the people who sit at the pointy end of the plane are called "pilots"? It's hardly an obvious choice, since nautically, as I understand it, a "pilot" is usually a local specialist who helps guide a ship through dangerous or tricky water, and not the person either steering or commanding the ship.

Just an idle thought....

[sir.pratt]

pi·lot (plt)
n.
1. One who operates or is licensed to operate an aircraft in flight.
2. Nautical
a. One who, though not belonging to a ship's company, is licensed to conduct a ship into and out of port or through dangerous waters.
b. The helmsman of a ship.
3. One who guides or directs a course of action for others.
4. The part of a tool, device, or machine that leads or guides the whole.
5. A pilot light, as in a stove.

[Il Duce]

During the 1980's the RAF tried to develop a combat aircraft that ran on natural gas. They scrapped the idea because the pilot kept going out.

[highdownwind]

Ok, but why cockpit?:}

[keithl]

Well I think it's a good question MadFS, and I'd like to know the answer, too.
I've always thought that since so many aviation terms are French (fuselage, aileron, etc.) that "pilot" comes from "pilote" which, of course, in French means nothing more than "driver".
But there may be other ideas...

[Old Smokey]

Why Cockpit? - It's probably aviation mythology, but I believe that it's a term from World War I when aircrew fought each other in 'duels to the death', much like the original cock fighting arena, where only one victor emerged.

Regards,

Old Smokey

[Aussie]

Might still be pilot now, but will soon be along the lines of computer babysitter!

[blackace]

Surprisingly enough, considering its modern contexts, the English word pilot can be traced back to the Indo-European root *ped-, meaning "foot." From the lengthened-grade suffixed form *pdo- came the Greek word pdon, "blade of an oar," and in the plural, "steering oar." In Medieval Greek there is assumed to have existed the derivative *pdts, "steersman," which passed into Old Italian and acquired several forms, including pedota, and pilota, the form that was borrowed into Old French as pilot. English borrowed the word from French, and as pilot it has moved from the water to the air, first being recorded in 1848 with reference to an airborne pilota (balloonist).

The first known reference to the term "cockpit" comes from the rather barbaric sport of cockfighting and refers to the pit in which the fights occurred. Shortly therafter, the word naturally attained a connotation as being related to any scene of grisly combat, such as European battlefields. By the end of the 16th Century, the term was being used to describe sunken pits or cramped, confined spaces. In particular, the word cockpit was used to describe the pit around the stage in a theater containing the lowest level of seats, as illustrated by this passage from William Shakespeare's "Henry V."

Can this Cock-Pit hold
The vastie fields of France? Or may we cramme
Within this Woodden O, the very Caskes
That did affright the Ayre at Agincourt?

In so doing, Shakespeare may have been trying to draw an analogy between the spectacle of a cockfight or battle and that of a theatrical performance. An entire London theater even became known as The Cockpit in 1635, as did the English Trasury and Privy Council government buildings that were built on the same ground later in the 17th Century.

However, the more direct linkage to your question comes from the use of the term cockpit to refer to a compartment belowdecks on a British naval vessel beginning around 1700. The often cramped and confined compartment was placed below the waterline and served as quarters for junior officers as well as for treating the wounded during battle. Although the purpose of this compartment evolved over time, its name did not. Even today, a room on the lower deck of a yacht or motor boat where the crew quarters are located is often called a cockpit. In addition, the rudder control space from which a vessel is steered is sometimes called a cockpit since a watchman in the highest position is called a cock, and a cavity in any vessel is called a pit.

This sense of the word, as an often confined space used for control purposes, was first applied to an aircraft around 1914 by pilots during World War I. In keeping with this same meaning, the tightly confined control space of a racing automobile also became known as a cockpit by about 1935.

amazing things search engines.

Might still be pilot now, but will soon be along the lines of computer babysitter!

what do you mean SOON ?

[Aussie]

Yeah ya right, who am i kiddin!!!

[cavortingcheetah]

:hmm:

The cockpit of an aircraft is the place from which two men direct the aircraft's progress through the skies.
In this day and age of social correctness, were two women to be at the pointy end, should that place now not be referred to as a box office?:ooh:

[Il Duce]

Whilst we're on the subject, why "wings"?

[cavortingcheetah]

:hmm:

Perhaps because 'Pterodactyls' is rather a cumbersome word to describe the same thing?:p

[john_tullamarine]

They scrapped the idea because the pilot kept going out.[

Enough of the serious banter ... can one opt to use this one elsewhere ? Priceless.

[Il Duce]

.............and why is it called a "tail"?
And what's a "dictionary"?

[cavortingcheetah]

:hmm:

It's called a tail because, if Willie Walsh is to be believed, that's where the hosties park theirs' while they scheme up new ways to throw 'sickies.'
A dictionary is what a chap called Ambrise Bierce wrote and which provides interminable light relief from the heavy pages of prose which constitute Pprune ramblings.;)

[Blues&twos]

OK.....joystick?

Is this going to be possibly the only word in the English language which doesn't have Naval ancestry?