This definitive work on the subject explores the history, development and future design of the military airplane cockpit. From the early days of World War I, when 100 miles per hour was barely attainable and bombs were often dropped by hand, to current designs that incorporate fly-by-wire technology and laser-guided weaponry, author and RAF veteran L.F.E. Coombes studies the evolution of how pilots control flight, how parachutes and ejector sears were incorporated into cockpit design, how multi-engine controls were developed, and how the ever-increasing sophistication of communications, weaponry and navigation instrumentation is more efficiently presented to increasingly overburdened pilots and crewmembers. Black-and-white and color photographs, as well as line drawings, help describe cockpit evolution and feature inside views the most remarkable military aircraft to ever cleave the skies.