Summary
- General aviation planes have more limited forward visibility than airliners due to their design and size.
- Taildraggers have the worst visibility while taxiing, forcing pilots to move side-to-side while taxiing.
- Airliners generally have good 180-degree visibility from the flight deck, but some planes are better than others.
Though pilots are trained to fly without being able to see ahead of them, being able to see where you are going on the ground is essential. How much pilots can see while taxiing is determined by the plane’s design, the size of the flight deck windows and their orientation, the tilt of the plane (think about taildraggers), and much more. Here’s a short explanation of how forward visibility differs in general aviation planes and airliners, and which planes have the best (and worst) lines of sight on the ground.
General aviation
General aviation aircraft tend to be harder to get an adequate view from the front during taxiing compared to airliners. Small prop planes sit much lower to the ground, which limits how much a pilot can see, and some have window frames or bars covering peripheral areas that might restrict visibility during taxi operations. That said, planes like Diamond DA-40s, Cessna 172s, Cirrus SR-20s, and other GA planes have great forward and aft visibility.
Photo: Ian Cramman I Shutterstock
Taildraggers present the most significant restriction to pilots’ sight lines while taxiing. Stearmans (and other warbirds like it) are good examples of planes that provide virtually no forward visibility on the taxiway. For this reason, pilots in taildraggers sometimes have to taxi side-to-side on the taxiway to give themselves a side view of what is ahead. This is the only way to ensure nothing is in front of them. Other taildraggers, like the Cessna 150, have slightly worse visibility than their tricycle gear GA counterparts. However, their forward visibility isn’t nearly as restricted as larger warbirds.
Early airliners like the iconic Douglas DC-3 were taildraggers. Like the Cessna 150s, they didn’t suffer from severe visibility restrictions during taxi. DC-3 pilots report a relatively benign taxi operation with reasonably good viewability from the flight deck. The flight deck on the DC-3 is at the front of the fuselage. The takeaway is that the planes with the most restrictive visibility during taxi are taildraggers with the cockpit slightly aft.
Airliners
Airliners allow pilots to have good visibility across the board. Mainline airliners tend to have 6 flight deck windows: two forward, two diagonal, and two side-view. Regional jets like the Embraer 175 and Bombardier CRJ series have four windows but still allow for excellent visibility due to the design and size of the panes. The only reason a pilot in one of the front seats of an airliner might feel that their visibility is limited would be if their seat were out of position. For this reason, manufacturers install sight guides to help pilots adjust their seats. This creates a good frame of reference and provides a consistent seating position relative to the controls on every plane in the fleet.
Photo: Airbus
As far as modern airliners go, the Boeing 737 has slightly worse visibility than many of its counterparts. It is lower to the ground than other planes of its size, combined with smaller flight deck windows so that you can see slightly less. However, it doesn’t do much to lessen overall functional visibility. It’s harder for 737 pilots to see things directly above them, but this is seldom an issue when taxiing.
On earlier models of the Boeing 737, Boeing installed overhead windows above the captain and first officer positions to address upward visibility. Being on the flight deck jumpseat of a Boeing 737 provides a much more restricted view than its Airbus A320 counterpart. However, pilots in the front seats can see just as much as any other airline pilot.
How Pilots Master the Precise Art Of Taxiing An Aircraft
The taxi regime of a flight involves the ground movement of the aircraft on its power.
On the other hand, the visibility on modern widebody flight decks is superb. In particular, the Boeing 787 and Airbus A350 have massive windows that allow pilots to see back to the engines and wings and have a good range of upward and downward forward sightlines. The second jumpseat on the Boeing 787 is positioned behind and slightly to the right of the first officer’s seat. Because the flight deck narrows towards the front, the massive, curved windows on the Dreamliner allow an observer or augmenting pilot to have a pretty good forward view despite being in the second row of the flight deck.
In a league of its own
The Concorde was an airliner with measures to enhance visibility in the air and on the ground. The iconic plane needed a nose visor adjustable to four different positions to be streamlined and aerodynamically capable of supersonic flight. During taxi, the nose visor extended downward and outward in a 5-degree position to allow similar forward visibility to other planes. The Concorde’s visor fit flush with the forward fuselage in its fully retracted position. This position didn’t allow for much downward visibility and restricted forward visibility due to the multiple window pylons. The Concorde featured a one-of-a-kind nose section for airline transport jets.
Like A Bullet: How The Nose Of Concorde Worked
Looking back at the unique design.
The view from an airliner flight deck is more or less like the view from a car on the highway—just without a rearview mirror. Pilots have an unobstructed 180-degree view from the flight deck and cannot see what is directly below them. This is why the marshaller has to stand far away from the nose when the plane arrives at the gate. It’s also part of the standard operating procedures at most airlines for each pilot to confirm that their side is clear before they make a turn. If the captain (sitting on the left side of the flight deck) is making a right turn, there’s no way they can see as much as the first officer. As a team, there’s not much that pilots can’t view from the flight deck.
