It is that end of the aircraft where everything comes together.

What’s fascinating about the deck is the plethora of useful information that is displayed and available to the operating crew through the modern day LCDs, or the older CRTs, or the time immemorial analog gauges. The sound of the cooling fans, the color on the displays, the lighting and the ambiance make for a romantic affair in the middle of a peaceful night.

So how did the flight deck evolve to the elegant mess that it is today? An excerpt from the FAA:

“The flight deck human factors discipline focuses on human performance aspects of flight deck systems design and analysis.

The rapid advances in flight deck automation technology have affected the manner in which the flight deck crew may safely manage the flight path of the airplane. Although the automatic systems have reduced or eliminated some types of pilot errors, the automatic systems have introduced other types of errors. As new systems and operational concepts emerge, the complexity and novelty of flight deck human factors analysis increases.”

The core passion of mine lies here: Flight Deck Human Factors Research Laboratory of the FAA.