Get rid of the doorway between the cockpit and fuselage on commercial airliners...just a wall there. Cockpit access only from side hatch at airport.

The idea being no access to pilots or cockpit from would- be hijackers.
-- ShawnBob, Jun 05 2022

https://www.aviatio...s-to-secure-cockpit [ShawnBob, Jun 07 2022]

Just so I've got this straight.
If both the pilot and the copilot are spontaneously incapacitated I either have to ride the plane to the ground or figure out how to enter the cockpit from outside the plane while in flight so that I have a chance of landing the thing?

Well sir... I don't like it.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Jun 05 2022


It's been considered, and it won't be implemented for several reasons.

1. Structural: Putting holes in fuselages for doors is to be avoided if possible. Door holes have to be heavily reinforced and the doors themselves are fairly heavy. In this regard, you'd have to put a couple right next to each other. In order to fit a door in the cockpit, you're going to have to expand the cockpit length significantly. Pilots would be absolutely fine with that, but the airlines would be losing revenue- generating volume and mass within the aircraft.

2. Safety: There are many scenarios here, but ultimately the Captain is responsible for the whole aircraft, passengers and crew. There are plenty of times when one of the cockpit crew might want to take a walk into the cabin. The obvious one is that there's a suspected problem with a flight control. This might be a faulty sensor or light, but a walk down the aircraft to take a look at the wing's trailing edge for example, might put both pilot's minds at ease.

As the person responsible, the Captain may want to get a closer look at other potential safety issues, a medical emergency etc. to make a decision on a divert etc.

Are we making the cockpit a separate pressure vessel? because that's got its own issues.
-- bs0u0155, Jun 06 2022


There's no problem that can't be solved with enough of someone else's time and money.
-- Voice, Jun 06 2022


I'd just like to point out that if you remove the door between the passenger area and the cockpit, then it becomes easier for passengers to enter the cockpit, not harder.
-- pocmloc, Jun 06 2022


I think the idea is that the cockpit door is replaced by cockpit wall.

This is another issue, of course. The cockpit door is already something of an interesting compromise. It has to be sturdy enough to keep out would-be attackers, but also a sacrificial structural element should there be a cockpit depressurization event. In the case of a cockpit window blow out, most cocpit door/frame arrangements are designed to fail in such a way as to allow the pressure in the rest of the aircraft to escape without failing catasptrophically or in such a way as to further trouble the pilots who already have a very sudden increase in workload to deal with.

If you wanted to wall off the cockpit, you'd still need blow- out panels, or, build a pressure bulkhead. These are usually hemispherical for structural efficiency, but this would take up a lot of space, naturally, since both the cabin and the cockpit would have to be pressurized and then you'd need 2 hemispherical bulkheads, this would then present the possibility of a failure in one of the two pressure vessels independently. Because you have 2 pressure vessels, the chances of failure of one of them doubles, and the much smaller cockpit vessel is a real problem, since it will depressurize very quickly given its volume, and the consequences of this are likely catastrophic.
-- bs0u0155, Jun 06 2022


The solution is simple. Remove airline pilots and cockpits. Can drones fly at 30k feet reliably through bumps and bad weather? It would be an interesting study.
-- RayfordSteele, Jun 06 2022


The hijackers will pose as pilots and then they can fly the plane wherever they want to. [-]
-- xandram, Jun 06 2022


@pocmloc: Dang! You are so right...Need to edit title.

@bs0u: A “wall” with “holes”.

I may have a real fish boner with this one. Seemed plausible anyway.

—as it turns out the better solution may be “Add Extra Cockpit Doors” *rolling eyes* (link)
-- ShawnBob, Jun 07 2022


//The solution is simple. Remove airline pilots and cockpits.//

You'll get buy-in from the airlines on that one at least. They already like the idea of going down to one pilot, and using low qualification pilots to look after the aircraft in the cruise.

The missions that drones (we'll use a Predator as out example) fly is the reason the same techniques can't be used for airliners. Drones are semi-expendable. That's their core value. Cheap enough to risk in dangerous areas, and if we're accepting risk, why not use that to add other value, like having the pilots 1000's miles away. If we're accepting risk, then redundancy can be cut and so can pilot/drone response lag toleranced. Drones are lost surprisingly often, they sometimes just fly out of control, dangerous weather, or a simple gusty crosswind that can't be managed remotely. Thing is, it doesn't matter. They're so cheap compared to manned aircraft, just throw up another one.
-- bs0u0155, Jun 07 2022



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